


Web Tied Souls

by Zeef



Series: Web Tied [2]
Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid, The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst, Autistic Hannah Foster, Autistic Paul Matthews, Canonical Character Death, Child Abuse, Disability, Electrocution, F/F, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff and Angst, Ghosts, Halloween, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Child Abuse, Post-Apocalypse, Pre-Black Friday (Black Friday), Pregnancy, Psychic Abilities, Sequel, Temporary Character Death, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:14:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 34
Words: 114,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23728897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zeef/pseuds/Zeef
Summary: Months after the events of Web Tied Hearts, the citizens of Hatchetfield are celebrating fall and enjoying the October air, but not all is as it seems. A powerful entity from the Black and White is ready to set his plans into motion, and it begins with a bit of chaos, followed by a lot more chaos when Black Friday comes around. Wiggly has disrupted the portal, and allowed the spirits of the dead back into Hatchetfield. Our heroes must stop this plot soon enough to prepare for Wiggly's true plans, while the town continues to recover around them.The ghosts of their past have literally come back to haunt them, and unless they can be stopped, both Hatchetfield and the world are doomed. They must move on from their painful pasts and look forward to a brighter future in order to find peace.
Relationships: Alice & Bill (The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals), Alice/Deb (The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals), Becky Barnes/Tom Houston, Charlotte/Ted (The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals), Hannah Foster & Lex Foster, Henry Hidgens & Emma Perkins, Lex Foster & John McNamara, Lex Foster & Tom Houston, Lex Foster/Ethan Green, Paul Matthews/Emma Perkins, Wilbur Cross & John McNamara, Xander Lee/John McNamara
Series: Web Tied [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1709149
Comments: 520
Kudos: 203





	1. The Bridge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lex has a PEIP lesson with John and he explains how much potential he sees in her. Tom, Becky, and the kids go to a faire and Tom contemplates his relationship with her once more. Charlotte and Ted are domestic. PEIP finds themselves in a heap of trouble as a powerful force from the Black and White causes problems with the portal. John must enter the Black and White to save Xander.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! To understand what is happening in this story you'll need to read Web Tied Hearts first, as this is set in the same universe a few months later. If you read Web Tied Hearts, welcome back! I'm happy to see you again! I hope you enjoy this new ride we are on together once more. As per usual, I do not know how long exactly this story will be as it will depend on how the story plays out.
> 
> It will lead up through the month of October and November into Black Friday, and cover the events that take place afterwards. It will also focus on more character's situations from time to time, so Hidgens will come into play, so will the office crew, this means not every chapter will have every character, sorry! That does mean that sometimes a chapter or two will be happening at the exact same time, because I keep my chapters roughly the same length to save my sanity. For example, most chapters are roughly seven pages in google docs. This chapter, if I had added all the scenes I wanted to add, would have ended up being about twelve. Waaaayyyy too long for my attention span.
> 
> As for this chapter, Charlotte discusses her thoughts on her physical disabilities due to the Apotheosis in a very optimistic way. I want it to be known I am not saying that disability is a walk in the park, I know from first and second hand experience that it can suck, but Charlotte isn't the type to see it as anything more than a new way of living, with some extra difficulties. I also want to emphasize in my story that disability isn't the end of the world and how life doesn't just end. ^-^
> 
> Also, there is a temporary character death in the final scene, apologies in advance. If you cannot read it at this time, you will have to come back because that scene is vital for the plot. Nothing is explicit and it is quickly resolved, but I always warn!

The Black and White was cold. The Black and White was hot. The Black and White was angry and empty and comfort and fear. It was everything and it was nothing and it twisted those who found themselves within it into a form they would not recognize in life. If they were lucky, a kind being would give them a peaceful eternity, but not all were lucky in the constant and everlasting war between the Good and the Bad. Some mortal souls were taken and turned into something dark, something angry, something that hungered for life and was willing to kill anything that came in the way of that goal. Those souls, feral and vapid, simply need a way free, a guiding light to lead them back into the material plane. There was a being who was happy to assist.

\---

It was October, and if it weren’t for the fact that it was her favorite month, Lex would be hating everything. Over the last few months, the majority of the town was in a phase of recovery, enough of it that day to day life had returned with a few differences. Not everyone recovered so there were maybe 4,000 or so less citizens walking around. It was a huge loss for a town that had previously had around 100,000 people living in it, but businesses and schools were literally coming back to life.

That meant school was a thing. Not only did it mean that school was a thing, it also meant she was doing 12th grade AGAIN. As if it hadn’t been bad enough the first time! Things were better now, Tom would sit with her every day after school and help her understand what her teachers were trying to teach her. She didn’t have to take as many hours at Toy Zone because she didn’t need to pay the bills and feed her sister. Hell, she didn’t even need the job anymore since Tom footed the bill. Lex only kept it to have her own spending money without having to rely on Tom.

There was a difference between independence due to neglect and independence due to nurturing. Sure, she could do whatever the hell she wanted before, nobody was going to yell at her for missing curfew (it wasn’t like there’d been one anyway), nobody was going to be disappointed in her grades (aside from herself). But that life had no safety nets, that life was shaky and terrifying. No teenager should be forced to raise themself AND their sibling. Now they had structure, structure Lex didn’t have to keep, and rules to follow that made her feel like someone actually cared.

It was October, and Lex loved the month of October. She just… vibed with it, you know? She loved the oranges and reds and yellows that the world became. She loved the crunch under her feet and the smell of pumpkins. What she did not love was repeating her senior year while taking special ‘you’ve got powers yay’ lessons from the General. It was weird to call the guy by his first name given his title and his job, but everybody called him John and she was 18 and theoretically he was not her boss or anything. Sure, he’d offered her a position as a field agent in the organization after she went to college.

Frankly, it was real fucking tempting. He was offering to make her a spy if she went to college, and they’d pay for it. A spy! Sure, being an actor had been the original goal, but she could totally act while being a spy, and she could be a total badass! Like, how much cooler could you get? Plus, PEIP had great benefits and she could help save the world and stuff, how much cooler could it get?! Ethan thought the idea was really cool too, they’d made out in a janitor's closet in the Headquarters building and everything.

Still, becoming a spy was basically another job form of school and it was just as boring.

“When was PEIP founded?” John asked, not looking up from the papers in front of him.

“Do we really have to know all this?” Lex asked, putting her feet up on his desk and crossing her arms.

John paused and looked up at her with a patient expression. “Alexandra Foster-Houston, you have inherent and potent potential, not just as an agent but also as a leader. You have a good heart and a strong desire to protect those you care about. I firmly believe you could one day take over my position in this organization. You have the mind and the strength it takes. I know you can do it. To get there, you need to take your future into your own hands and take this seriously. If you want to get there, and you can, but you need to put in the effort to get there. If you want my position you have the duty to know everything there is to know about it. That is why this is important.”

Lex was quietly, thinking about what he was offering her. She took her feet off the table and put her elbows on her knees. “PEIP was founded in 1961 by a former member of the CIA who uncovered information about extraterrestrials and the paranormal through his attempt at taking down a big bad tech thing, specifically when the first guy in space saw an alien in space. It was covered up to keep people calm, and he, with the help of the American military, founded PIEP to keep ahead of the Russians in the field and to protect America against potential threats.”

“He was a part of the American Secret Service not the CIA, but the rest is correct. What was his name?” John asked.

“Agent Curt Mega. He had assistance from the C- I mean the Secret Service and a Russian defector. They decided to found it here because their research found that this island is right on the point where two ley lines cross and weird shit happens here all the time, making it a great place for this kinda thing,” Lex said. “Am I doing well?”

“You are. I’m proud of you,” John said, giving her a small smile and nod.

Lex scratched her cheek, unsure how to react to that. “Thanks?”

“Tomorrow we’ll work on your powers. Keep up the good work, Lex,” John said with a smile.

“You too?” Lex said, giving him an awkward salute as she exited the room. John was an alright guy, she supposed.

\---

“Guess whooo found the cotton candy vender!” Becky said cheerfully as she appeared behind Tim and Hannah.

“Oh hell yeah!” Tom said as he helped her hand out the treats to each of the children.

Lex and Ethan had wandered off on their own to enjoy the faire together as a date, leaving Tom and Becky with the younger two. Becky had taken a role in their little family, going with them on family events such as the one they were currently in. She helped with groceries and homework, as well as with teenage girl problems and bedtimes. They weren’t dating, but she was around a lot, and was truly trying to be involved in their lives.

Tom watched as she knelt by the kids, entertaining them with a story he wasn’t listening to. He remembered when they were in high school, when they were young and fresh and clean. He remembered how pretty she’d looked under the lights of the stadium, when they kissed as they won the championship. Yeah, he remembered how things were, but God, in the warm glow of the fall faire, with her hair pulled back in a fall jacket, smiling at his children with such a light in her eyes, Tom knew with no uncertainty that this was the most beautiful she had ever looked.

Jane. He never stopped missing Jane. Tom was sure that he never would. It was going to be two years since the accident when Christmas came around, and the amount his life had changed since that night was startling. He wished she was still there, he wished he’d seen the other car and that Jane was safe, but wishes were dreams, and dreams were pretend. Jane wasn’t coming back, and he hadn’t died with her. She would want him to be happy.

Tom could see a future with Becky, for real this time. They’d been together the way they were now since January, and he thought, maybe, he was ready to… maybe start holding hands in a not just friends way? Perhaps he’d even be ready for a kiss, if she was also interested in it. He resolved to talk to her about it when she came over tomorrow to help with homework. After the younger ones went to bed and Lex was busying herself in her room like she always did.

For now, he would just enjoy the lights and smells and sounds, the smiles on his children’s faces and the warmth of her hand in his.

\---

Charlotte smiled warmly at Ted as he attempted to carry their new television in its box like a strongman. Ted’s recovery had been quite easy, as the only real damage he’d received was directly before he was infected, and it was a shot to the chest rather than the brain. Her own recovery had reached the point where she couldn’t get any better than she was, and everyone had come to accept that, including herself. No amount of physical therapy made her legs work right, and that was okay.

There were worse things than a wheelchair after all! And really, it wasn’t so bad, it didn’t really change much. Sure, she needed help with certain tasks, but her independence wasn’t terribly altered. Her hands shook, but there were special utensils and things that made that not so bad either. It could make work difficult, but they got her a special keyboard, and if she needed to dial an extension she could ask for help. Really, it wasn’t all that bad!

Besides, once Ted had gotten well enough, he’d moved into her temporary apartment with her so that he could help her. The whole thing just worked out swell, and they’d resolved to move somewhere together that was wheelchair accessible when everything blew over so they could keep it up. Ted had been an absolute dear about it all. When he’d first gotten cured and he was still out of it, he would stare at her like she was an angel or a miracle or something, and she would still catch him looking at her like that when he thought she didn’t see.

He was an asshole, of course, but he was… gentle… now. Far more gentle. He’d always been gentle with her, in day to day situations not when it was called for during their… snuggle times… Ted never squeezed her arm too tightly, never brushed her off like her thoughts didn’t matter. Yes, he’d hated Sam, and he’d killed Sam, but it was to protect Charlotte. Now, after whatever happened when she was infected that he remembered but she did not, he... 

Ted was a different man than he had been before the Apotheosis, and it wasn’t a bad thing. He still said awful things, never about her but in general. He still made bad jokes and teased people and played a bit rough with Paul and Bill, but when she would break down in tears, when everything came down on her and was too much, he’d hold her hands so gently, and brush her curls out of her eyes, and tell her that she was still the most beautiful, funny, and intelligent woman he’d ever known. He’d kiss her hands and her lips and make her feel like she was still alright.

He’d matured, she decided. He’d seen something terrible, and he’d died, and he learned something from it. Ted told her time and time again that he would never let anything like that happen to her again, that he would be there from now on and she would never have to hurt like that. He told her he’d had his ‘come to Jesus’ moment, not when he said he did to Emma and Paul, but when he was shot, and realized that nothing he’d ever done mattered, and that if he could do it all over again he would have done whatever it took to save her that day.

Charlotte liked this new Ted. He was more open, more honest. He was still a rascal and a nuisance but he wasn’t going to leave her now that she wasn’t the same as before. Ted was invested in her in a way Sam never had been, and she couldn’t help but love him. It was real this time, not that it wasn’t real before. It was desperation before, a desperation for love, for companionship, for touch. They’d filled what the other needed. Now it was… there was something softer there, something she had never had with Sam. It was like that day outside Beanies when he held her while she cried, but happier, and all the time.

“Ted, Sweetie, you’d better put that down before you break your back. I know you are a very strong man without us having to go to the chiropractor tomorrow,” she teased, rolling herself a bit closer.

Ted finally sat the box down on the floor and breathed a sigh of relief, leaning against the wall. “I swear I’m strong, really strong. That TV is just… awkwardly shaped is all.”

“Well you pick me up all the time with no trouble so I never doubted you,” Charlotte said warmly.

Ted gave her a wink as he pulled out his box cutter and began to open the cardboard. “That’s ‘cause you aren’t awkwardly shaped.”

Charlotte laughed and said, “We can’t deny I am a little awkward.”

“Yeah, but that’s what makes you hot,” he quickly replied, giving her a smile before turning back to fighting the box.

“You need a hand there?” she asked as she watched him.

“Yeah! Here,” Ted said, quickly handing her the instruction manual and the remote. “You start looking up how to get it all connected, I’ll get the damn thing out of the box.”

Charlotte smiled and nodded, beginning to do so. Things were better now, better than she could have imagined them ever being. Yes, she had problems with her legs and her hands and yes it made things difficult, but she was still alive, and she was thriving for the first time in years. She had Ted, and they’d make it through it all together.

\---

“John? We’ve got a problem,” Xander said, quickly throwing on his sunglasses which doubled as blue light blockers so that it was easier to read the screen he was looking at.

“What is it?” John asked, quickly making his way over to him. John was doing better than he had been. He was still regaining weight and muscle tone, but finally, after months of work and hours in physical therapy, he was well enough to stand tall and do his job as normal, as long as he actually took his breaks.

“The portal seems to be on the fritz or something. Look at this data,” Xander said, pulling his husband closer and pointing out what he was talking about.

John’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the data coming in. “The electrical systems are going wild, what’s causing it? We need to shut it down so nothing bad happens.”

Xander shook his head, not saying no, just purely confused. “It isn’t coming from our end, the readings are indicating it’s coming from the other side, but that shouldn’t be possible, right?”

“Not unless something with immense power is disrupting it from the other side. Turn it off, now!” John ordered the scientists in the room.

They all knew that if something was trying to force its way through the portal, it wasn’t going to end well. Even if the thing couldn’t get through, which it shouldn’t be able to do, it could cause a massive amount of damage to the base and to the town, simply due to the amount of energy that was going through the portal at the moment. Everyone was rushing around and John drew his gun, just in case.

“Sir, it isn’t turning off!” a young woman squeaked from her desk. “I tried everything on my end and it’s still doing this!”

“Same thing for me!” another scientist called, his voice panicked.

“Shit,” John muttered, turning off the safety and aiming his gun at the portal. “Everyone stop touching your devices!”

Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and a bright light, and everything began to slow down. All of the electrical equipment in the room suddenly seemed to explode with electricity. Beside him, Xander made a quick sound as the electricity coursed through his body, sending him to the ground. As that happened, the room went dark as the entire power grid went out, causing screams of shock to come from all over.

The portal be damned, John put the safety back on his gun and knelt beside his husband. Xander wasn’t breathing, his body spasming from the electricity. John hesitated to touch him, but reached out to feel for him mentally. To his horror, there was nothing there. Xander wasn’t there. If he wasn’t there, if John couldn’t feel him through his connection to the Black and White… No no he could feel Xander, but not on their plane of existence. No. 

“Fuck no,” John growled, ignoring the scientists as he barreled past them, through the portal.

Xander. His soul was asleep still, not aware that it had passed due to how it happened, but it was so recent that he was right by the entrance. John quickly grabbed a hold of his husband’s soul and turned to leave, only to be stopped by a familiar laugh. No. As if the day couldn’t get any worse. Of course it was the doing of the demon lord himself.

“Johnny, leaving so soon?” he asked, biting into an apple.

John froze, though he knew every millisecond he hesitated was death to him. “Don’t do this, Wilbur. Whatever it is. Let me bring my husband back in peace.”

“You didn’t even invite me to the wedding,” Wilbur scolded. “Father of the groom and I didn’t even get a card.”

“I don’t have time for this,” John growled. “Let me leave in peace, Wilbur.”

“Our time is coming. Wiggly will rise. You’re just gonna help me out some in the meantime,” Wilbur stated. “I’m not stopping you from returning to your reality with his soul, in fact, I want you to. It is exactly what I want you to do.”

John turned the safety back off of his gun and quickly shot the man’s apple out of his hand. “I won’t let your plans succeed,” he said, putting the gun away once more and storming back through the portal with Xander’s soul.

The moment he stepped through the portal, the soul returned itself to its body, and John fell to his knees, screaming in pain as the exposure to the Black and White caught up to him. It was as though he had been drenched in acid, but rather than burns, it was as though the flesh had simply been eroded away. Xander sat up from behind his desk with a gasp, and John smiled with relief as scientists began to try and talk to him, to help him or something.

John paid them no mind though as the smile fell from his face. He was entirely focused on the swirls of energy that were flooding from the portal that no one else seemed to be able to see. Souls. Damn it. By bringing Xander back he’d opened the door for other souls like him to return as well, just as Wilbur had wanted him to do. He spared one more glance in his husband’s direction before the pain became too much and everything went to black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes it's April and you're just like, fuck it, it's Halloween time. Happy Halloween, here there be ghosts.


	2. Hell Has Arrived

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hidgens has regrets, and is trying his best to have a nice evening until Webby interrupts. Charlotte and Ted have a nice evening regardless of what is happening. Emma and Paul realize shit's going down. Bill, Alice, and Deb head towards Clivesdale in case shit is going down. Tom and the family do not have a fun time at the faire, and there aren't enough seats in Emma's car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, it is five thirty in the morning when I am writing this, so I am a bit loopy. If there are mistakes this is why.
> 
> Also as a warning, in the second scene, Ted and Charlotte are talking about having some fun bed times. These fun bed times are discussed and hinted at, but are not described in writing because I do not write smut. Spoilers, they do the do in the bed, the uhhh the... you know ;). Again, it is not actually written, because I do not write smut, but the act does occur.

Doctor Henry Hidgens did not handle much well. In general. He attempted to prepare for every possible scenario, but when faced with said scenario, he… didn’t exactly do well under the pressure. Regret riddled his mind and soul due to his actions directly before his infection. Emma forgave him, he knew, especially when he’d been able to explain that he hadn’t been thinking clearly at the time. That didn’t make it any easier to swallow.

Henry hadn’t been aware at the time that the tests he had been running on the blue substance had caused spores to take root in his mind, leading him to want to be fully infected and to infect others. Once he awoke, cured, his mind once more clear, he understood what he had tried to do and what the consequences could have been for poor Emma.

His curing process hadn’t gone well. Between his age and the damage he received upon infection, he had to take a sabbatical rather than returning to work for the fall semester. He could take care of himself well enough, he just found himself still rather weak and unable to stand or do anything particularly taxing for any period of time. Emma had taken to doing his shopping for him, and had been bringing food when she couldn’t eat over with him to keep him company.

He knew she forgave him, he knew she still trusted him, in spite of everything. Henry couldn’t imagine why she was still being so kind to him after what he did, what he almost did… He couldn’t forgive himself for that. Emma was the first person in years who had taken any interest in him on a personal level. She’s seen he was having a rough day and offered him weed, and they’d smoked together on the back steps of the science building on campus. Over time she’d helped him with groceries, occasionally eating dinner with him to keep him company.

In return, he’d given her assistance in homework for other classes and taught her extra things in his lab. She was gifted with biology, truly, she simply had no belief in herself and her ability to advance beyond the goal she set. Henry was a teacher, and in her he saw a student that needed a mentor. She’d lost her parents at a young age, and now her sister, she needed someone, and he had no one. They’d developed a mentor and mentee sort of relationship, to the point that he was considering adding her to his will, not like he had anyone else to add.

_Ghosts._

“What?!” Henry cried, startled to hear Webby’s voice for the first time since the Apotheosis. Just as he said it, the electricity suddenly went out, leaving him in pitch darkness. He sat down his coffee and pushed himself into a standing position, going to check on his generator. “Shit, what do you mean ghosts?”

_Ghosts. Broken door. Halloween._

\---

Charlotte shrieked in surprise when the power suddenly went off. Ted swore loudly and quickly began fumbling around through drawers to find their flashlight. When he found it he clicked it on and gave Charlotte a smile. “I always come prepared,” he joked, pointing the light at her.

“Oh, Ted,” she replied, playfully rolling her eyes. “I wonder what’s going on, the streetlights are out and everything.”

Ted went to the window and looked outside. “Yeah, looks like the whole block’s out. I’m sure they’ll get things up and running soon. The TV can hold off until morning.”

“There’s still plenty of evening left,” Charlotte said, “whatever should we do with it?”

He slowly walked over to her, sitting on the couch beside her and wrapping an arm around her. “Well… We could always light all the candles… put ‘em around the bedroom… We’ve got that wine in the fridge… we don’t want that to warm back up now do we?”

Charlotte giggled and batted at him playfully, saying, “Oh, you are a horny dog, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, but you love it,” he teased back, planting a kiss on her lips. “So are we gonna do this or-”

“Yes of course! What better use is there for a power outage?” she asked, kissing him back.

“Alrighty then, I’m gonna romance the shit outta you, are you ready for it?” he asked as he picked her up.

“I am always ready,” she said with another giggle.

He sat her down on his bed and grabbed the lighter from the junk drawer. Ted made silly faces at her as he lit each one, causing her to laugh more. “Am I hot or what?” he asked as he struggled to get his tie off.

Charlotte laughed even more. “So hot,” she said, trying not to laugh now as he fought with his tie.

Finally he got the thing off and his shirt soon followed. Ted got the wine from the fridge and returned with the bottle, happy to see she’d taken off her sweater while he was gone. He popped it open and sat down on his side of the bed, taking a sip before handing it over to her. “To us, eh?”

“To us,” she agreed, taking a sip herself before sitting the bottle on the side table.

Ted leaned over her for a kiss, and it soon deepened in their familiar routine. They were going to enjoy their time on earth, damnit, and they had no idea what was happening outside. They didn’t need to, everything they needed was in that room.

\---

“It’s- Emma, it’s already 8 pm, we can’t go now,” Paul said as she wrapped his scarf around him.

“The fall festival, Paul! It’s only here through Sunday and tonight’s the night Tom and Becky are taking the kids,” Emma said.

“It’s a Thursday!” he cried, adjusting her hat so it sat correctly on her head.

“And it’s the night the teenagers are doing their kissing booth for the theater department fundraiser, so Lex and Ethan had to go to support their friends, and I have to go to support my sister’s memory,” she said, fixing his collar.

Paul dramatically rolled his eyes as he opened the door for her. “Doesn’t it end for the night at 10?”

“It gives us two hours!”

“Less, if you account for driving time.”

“You don’t even drive, Paul Matthews, don’t you come to me about driving times.”

They had moved out of the base housing early on and into the house she’d grown up in. Jane had gotten ownership of it after their parents passed, and when she and Tom got married they’d started renting the place out. Now Tom rented it to Emma and Paul, giving them the right to do whatever the hell they wanted with it as long as they ran it by him. It was located in the outskirts of the school district in the more suburban side of town

The pair got in their car and Emma turned on the gas. They buckled up and headed out of their driveway, going towards downtown where the faire was. As they rolled to a stop at the top of a hill at a stop sign, they froze, watching the lights of the town going out like a wave coming from the direction of the PEIP base. Neither one spoke for a moment, as if waiting to see if the power would return or not. When it did not, they turned to look at each other with sheer confusion on their faces.

“So… back home? Or are we going to the base?” Paul asked.

“It came from the base, it’s probably not our best bet right now. You call Tom while I drive,” she said, putting on her hazard lights and making a u-turn in the intersection. “No way in hell we’re going downtown if shit’s hitting the fan again, no man.”

“Where are you driving?” he asked as the phone rang.

“Clivesdale. Just until we get the all clear. We can eat at that diner,” Emma said in a level voice. She certainly hoped shit wasn’t hitting the fan.

\---

“Was a kissing booth really the best you kids could come up with?” Bill asked as he handed his daughter and her girlfriend the cotton candy he’d gotten them. “I know neither of you took part in it but still.”

“Teenagers are horny, man, what can I say?” Deb asked, then appeared to immediately regret her decision as Alice jabbed her in the ribs with her elbow. The trio was near the edge of the faire by the parking lot where it was quieter, for better or worse.

Bill had to take a very long pause before responding. He was trying, he really was. After the Apotheosis, and after they’d been cured, he and his ex-wife had changed their custody agreement so that Alice could live with him for her senior year. When she heard what he’d done to try and save their daughter, she hadn’t put up much of a fight.

He had also been trying very hard to be more accepting of Deb, but she certainly didn’t make it easy. She was cagey around him, like she was nervous or something, and it put him on edge. Deb also had a habit of speaking rather bluntly, and making comments that weren’t exactly… necessary. But! Alice loved her, and she said there was more to Deb than the side she showed to him, that he just had to gain her trust and that she would open up to him, but a part of him doubted that other side existed. Still, he was trying. He had to try. For Alice.

“Teenagers are often horny,” he agreed through gritted teeth as he drank his warm apple cider. Non-alcoholic! He was the driver!

“And they are also often happy!” Alice said, trying to smooth things over.

Suddenly all the lights at the faire went out and a surprised hush fell over the crowd. After what happened in December, Bill didn’t hesitate, he dropped his cider and pulled the girls with him to the parking lot before people could react, already buckled up and turning on the car before anyone else seemed to have the same idea.

“Dad?” Alice asked. “What’s going on?”

The girls were buckled up but hugging in the back seat, looking terrified. They remembered the Apotheosis, at least the fear that the day brought, and they were scared again now. Bill had no reason other than parental intuition to believe that something was wrong, but he wasn’t going to ignore that instinct ever again. Last time he ignored it, his daughter died, he died. He wasn’t letting that happen again.

“I don’t know, Sweetie, but until I do we’re going to Clivesdale.”

\---

When the lights went out, there was silence. Then, there was panic. Tom immediately picked up Tim as Becky picked up Hannah so that the children wouldn’t be trampled in the sudden chaos that the crowd had become. The majority of the people there had no memory of the Apotheosis, they had no idea what had happened besides that bad things went down. Now, they were flighty, afraid any little thing could be a sign of the apocalypse.

That said, Hannah had the look in her eyes that she got when Webby was speaking to her, so Tom had a feeling that there might be a real reason to be afraid. 

“Stay with me, we need to find Lex and Ethan,” Tom shouted over the screaming. Becky nodded and followed him as they made their way through the crowd, towards where the kissing booth had been located. They had no idea if the pair was there, but they thought their last known location was a good place to start.

Tom held Tim’s head to his chest so he wouldn’t see the results of the panic, blood and people trampled in the rush. He didn’t need to see that even in the pitch blackness of the street. The crowd was beginning to thin out though as people ran for their cars. There was no way they were driving out of there until the crowd disappeared, they were better off walking. If shit was going down though, walking could be what got them all killed, and there was no telling that the next apocalypse would have a reset button like the last.

“LEX! ETHAN!” Tom shouted.

“Daddy, your phone,” Tim said in his ear.

“I can’t answer it right now, Sweetie, I’ll call them back,” Tom said as he continued searching.

“It’s Uncle Paul,” he insisted.

Becky grabbed the phone from Tim and gave Tom a nod to continue. “Paul, it’s Becky, the people at the faire didn’t handle the blackout well, there’s no way we’re gonna be able to drive out of here any time soon. We’ve got the kids. Where are you?”

“LEX! ETHAN!” Tom called. He couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation as he walked a bit ahead, believing he could see the booth up ahead.

“Dad?!” he heard Lex’s voice call from inside a nearby stall.

Tom tapped on Becky’s arm and pushed his way over to it. Lex, Ethan, and some of their friends were hiding inside the caramel corn booth. “Thank god, you’re all alright. We need to go.”

“Understatement of the year,” Lex said as she stood up.

“What’s going on?” Ethan asked, reaching to take Hannah from Becky so she could focus on the call.

Becky sat Hannah down on the counter so she could be picked up and nodded, though Paul could not see her nod. “If we can get to Beanies do you think you can pick us up there?”

“That’s blocks away!” Tom hissed.

She held up a finger to tell him to wait as she listened. Chaos still continued around them, though the group was largely unbothered as they remained out of the way. “Okay, Beanies it is, then Clivesdale,” Becky agreed, looking at Tom to make sure he heard.

“Why not the base?” Tom said, which got him another ‘wait’ motion.

“See you soon,” she said as she hung up and handed him back his phone. “The power surge came from the base. I don’t think we should take the kids there until we get the all clear from the higher-ups.”

“Okay, so Clivesdale. We’ve gotta get all the way to beanies?” he asked, adjusted his hold on his son.

“With the madness that is Downtown right now Beanies is far enough away that the roads should be clearer,” she explained.

Tom nodded, then looked at the group of kids. Emma had a car, not a van or anything. They had three empty seats, and four teens, two adults, and two children. Alright, you two, call your parents, tell them we’re gonna take you to Beanies, they can pick you up there. Got it?”

Lex and Ethan’s friends nodded and began to text their parents. That left the six of them and three seats. Tom felt his panic rise as he thought of how terribly wrong that could go. He didn’t want to lose anyone else in a car accident, not when they were already being risky. How were they going to manage it? Tom took a breath, and was calmed some when Becky put a hand on his shoulder. “The crowd’s calmed down, we can go now, come on,” Tom said, readjusting his hold on Tim again as he led the way through the now mostly deserted street and down the road.

No one spoke during the trip. Becky and the teens used their phones to light the way, though Tom still had not let go of Tim. If he could hold both of the kids at once, he would, but they’d both had a growth spurt that made it impossible. They had no idea what sort of apocalypse this was going to be, but he had to get his family to safety, and he knew what needed to be done. By the time they got there, Emma was already parked outside the shop.

“Alright, Becky, Lex, Ethan, get in the car. Hold onto Tim and Hannah, buckle them in with you if you can,” Tom ordered as Becky opened the door.

“But, Dad-” Lex said as Tom firmly kissed his son on the head before letting him go.

“Your friends need an adult to stay with them until their parents get here. I’ll ask one of them to drop me off wherever you guys end up,” Tom said as he hugged Hannah tightly and kissed her on the head as well.

“No, no you don’t know that’ll work, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Lex protested, her panic rising as Tom pulled her close and kissed her head.

“Be safe, okay? Watch out for them until I get back to you guys,” Tom said to her. “You can do this.”

“Don’t you fucking die on me,” she said, tears threatening to spill over as Ethan pulled her into the car.

Tom helped the kids get in as well before turning to Becky. “Beck,” he said quietly, “if this doesn’t-”

He was cut off by her pulling him into a kiss. When she broke it off she said, “Now you aren’t allowed to die,” and got in the car as well, closing the door.

“Tom!” Emma shouted from the window.

“Go! I gotta make sure these two are okay!” he replied with a wave.

Emma did not look convinced, but she nodded in understanding and drove off into the darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In Ted and Charlotte's defense, they have no idea it's an apocalypse, like, the power goes out all the time. For all the other characters know, they could be overreacting.
> 
> Also yes, Hidgens is connected to the Black and White. Yes he considers Emma to be like a daughter. It happens.
> 
> I hope the end doesn't leave you too sad, Tom'll be fine.


	3. Steel Your Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xander is very disoriented after dying for about a minute and gets very worried about John. Emma ends up taking the crew to Hidgen's place after a call from him saying it wasn't an emergency. Bill dislikes Deb's parents and is not even disappointed they can't go to Waffle House. Tom finds himself witness to something he doesn't particularly want to see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello hello! Chapter three! No Charlotte and Ted scene this chapter or probably next chapter depending because, well, they're a bit busy.
> 
> No particular warnings for the chapter. There is a non-descriptive description that can be gross to imagine in scene one, there's another non-descriptive description in the last one, neither is graphic.

“John?” Xander called, struggling to breathe where he was laying on the ground. He barely processed the scientist, a fellow physicist, leaning over him and fussing. Xander rolled his eyes and attempted to push the man out of his face.

“What the hell is going on?!” he heard Schaeffer shout from the doorway.

Good. Good. Schaeffer was there, she could handle the situation. He felt disoriented, confused, and like he didn’t entirely fit inside his body right. Knowing Schaeffer was there and could be in charge meant he could focus on making the world feel real again. There was rustling in the room around him as… things… happened… Xander wasn’t really sure. There were flashing lights and sounds and Xander just wanted everything to calm down.

He was being lifted up, and then he was being placed on something softer than the thing he had been on before, and then he was being pushed on said thing to somewhere else. Lights were still flashing, there were still sounds, but he assumed, in his very logical state of mind, that he was being taken somewhere else and that he was allowed to concern himself with other things. Xander… remembered… a place of shifting blackness and whiteness, a dark and light place, where he was not solid, but purely white, and then-

“John!” Xander called again, more concerned this time.

“He’s okay,” a voice to his left said as he was still being moved. “He’s ahead of us, he’s going to be fine, sir.”

They were in the Black and White. Xander could not go into the Black and White. John had gone inside, and he was fully colored like he always was, he wasn’t there of the Black and White, he had been there physically. Xander had died. Hadn’t he? Xander had died from that shock and John ran through the portal to bring his soul back like he was some old Greek myth. He was back now though, disoriented and in pain, but he was back and he was alive, and John had gone into the Black and White physically without a suit to bring him back to life.

“John, he went in, he’s- is he-” Xander asked, grabbing the doctor at his side.

Xander had seen the pictures. Thirteen years ago he had been an intern on the project and as such had not been allowed in the room the portal was located in for safety reasons. No one had known what was going to happen when it was turned on, and no one wanted to send a kid fresh out of his undergrad in a room that could kill him. They also hadn’t allowed him to be there when they sent the first person through, but he had seen the photos.

The first person they’d sent… they hadn’t known he would need a suit. He was torn apart and never returned. The second though… The second was a woman who had a connection to the Black and White. They thought perhaps she would be able to handle the ‘atmosphere’ of the place better. She had, to be fair to them, she managed to return through the portal in a puddle of bones and dissolved flesh. Xander had seen the photographs. The third? Well, they didn’t talk about Wilbur.

“He’s okay, he wasn’t in there long enough to hurt him too badly, he’s unconscious but he’s okay. He-... he’ll be okay,” the doctor soothed in the least soothing way possible.

“What’s wrong?” Xander demanded, his hand screaming in pain from the burn. He ignored it though, shaking the doctor slightly as they rolled to a stop in the ER.

“It’s like a really bad sunburn,” she said, patting his hand and gently pulling it from her so she could check it over. “I don’t know much else, I’m in charge of you right now, okay? I’ll tell you more when I know, right now you’re gonna let me take your vitals, alright?”

Xander relaxed at the statement and did allow her to do so. He assumed there was more damage to his hands where he had touched Xander’s soul and to the exposed areas of his arms and face, but he was alive. John was alive. Everything would be okay. For now he had to be treated for his electric shock and temporary death, then he would get to see John again. It was going to be okay.

\---

The car was silent as they drove, save for the sniffles of Hannah and Tim who Lex and Becky were trying to calm. None of them knew what was going on, none of them knew what risk Tom could be in. They weren’t on the base, they had no idea what could be happening. Becky had gotten a text saying emergency medical personnel were needed in the portal room, but she hadn’t responded because she wasn’t on shift and could not get there at that time.

“WITH THE TASTE OF YOUR LIPS I’M-”

“Phone, Paul, my phone, it’s the professor,” Emma said, digging through her pocket and throwing the phone at her boyfriend.

He failed to catch it but dug around to find it as Brittney continued to sing. “Um, hello? This is Paul Matthews speaking, Emma’s driving,” Paul said, turning the phone onto speaker so Emma could also hear.

“Paul! Good God! You’re not going to believe this!” Hidgens said, far louder than necessary.

“Another apocalypse?” Emma asked, as if the situation was like a thunderstorm, unavoidable but only slightly annoying.

“Exactly, Emma! Ghosts!” the professor replied.

Emma had to laugh at that. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Ghosts! I have no other information to give you at this time, other than something is happening Halloween. I need you to get to my house as quickly as possible,” Hidgens stated.

“We were heading to Clivesdale,” Emma explained. “We don’t want to get trapped in the city again when shit hits the fan.”

“I highly doubt the spirits have the strength to make shit hit the fan right now. Halloween! Halloween is when they will strike, the vale between the living and dead is thinnest on October 31st and November 1st. Until then they will likely be biding their time,” Hidgens replied.

“Why?” she asked, glancing over at Paul briefly.

The professor scoffed. “They’ve escaped too early! It’s only the third of October! I am no parabiologist, but I know a few things about ghosts!”

“Parabiologist?” Emma asked. Why did the professor have to do that thing where everything he said only made her more confused?

“The study of the biological side of paranormal beings! It also includes beings of alien and interdimensional origins,” Hidgens explained.

“Okay… okay… okay, so we have time?” Paul asked, trying very hard to accept this as fact and not fall into a panic.

“We have time, yes, not much, but we have time,” Hidgens assured.

Emma pulled over to the side of the road as everyone in the car caught their breath. They had time. PEIP would figure out what was going on and fix what was happening before it was too late. They weren’t currently in danger. Tom wasn’t currently in danger. “Okay, Professor. Why do you need me to come over? I’ve got Tom’s kids and Becky in the car with us right now.”

The professor paused at that question as if he hadn’t thought that far ahead which, knowing him, was likely true. Finally, he said, “I have power because of my generator. It’s going to be cold this evening. You should all come stay the night, so that the kids don’t freeze.”

“That’s it?” she asked, sounding unconvinced even though she altered her course.

“Have you ever heard of ectoplasm, Emma?” Hidgens asked. “It’s a substance created by souls then they lack a body to return to and attempt to have physical interactions with objects. It is usually rare, since most ghosts lack the strength to interact with objects, so this is an amazing opportunity for science!”

“Do you have ectoplasm? Was a ghost at the bunker?” Paul asked.

“No, but! With any luck we can collect some by the end of the night. The sooner we understand what is giving the ghosts their power to manifest in a nearly physical form, the sooner we can get rid of them,” he explained.

“Well, we’re on our way. Put on some coffee and cocoa so it’s ready by the time we get there. It’s two teens, two kids, then Paul, Becky, and I. Tom will come as soon as he can, as long as you’re right about all this. Paul will text him your address,” Emma said, every bit of it sounding more like orders than suggestions, but taking charge was something she was good at.

“Very good. I will see you all shortly,” Hidgens replied.

“See you in about fifteen minutes,” she agreed as Paul hung up the phone.

\---

“Dad, we can’t eat at Waffle House,” Alice sighed.

Bill put the car into park and turned around in his seat to look at the two girls behind him. “And why is that?”

“Deb’s allergic to gluten,” Alice explained.

He took a deep breath to stop himself from making a remark about how it seemed like there wasn’t anything Deb COULD eat, but resisted the urge. If Deb was allergic to gluten, that was not her fault. “When did we find this out?” he asked instead.

“Like a month ago. Turned out it was the gluten that was upsetting my stomach, not the other stuff we thought it was,” Deb explained, though Bill was still just as confused as before.

“Are you still vegan?” Bill asked.

“Nah, my parents were like ‘you can’t have both a gluten free diet AND a vegan diet we aren’t spending the money on both’ so I agreed to be mostly vegetarian so that my parents will buy stuff I can eat without my stomach killing me,” Deb said with a shrug.

Bill turned forward once more so that the girls couldn’t see him frown. Now, Bill didn’t really understand what gluten was, or what vegan was. He knew from taking the girls out to eat that it was more expensive than normal things, but he couldn’t imagine telling Alice she had to choose between something she thought was right and being able to eat without having an allergic reaction. While it was good to know she wasn’t getting food she was allergic too, he was still displeased with her parents.

He had met the pair a few times. At one point, he and Deb’s parents had chaperoned one of their early dates and the way they’d spoken about Deb had gotten on his nerves. Sure, he often talked about how Alice was a perfect little angel, but that wasn’t the sort of thing Deb’s parents were saying. No, they spoke about all the activities they’d put her in that she had failed at, how they wanted her to do better in school but it was one disappointment after another. They had always seemed arrogant and self centered, not at all supportive. Now Bill realized that it went much deeper than them wanting her to go to a good college.

Bill pulled out of the parking lot and asked, “What’s a good place that’d be open? Also what is gluten?”

“Gluten is like wheat and stuff,” Alice explained.

“How about Silver Diner? They’ve got a lot of stuff to choose from,” Bill suggested. “I’m sure there’s something there you can eat.”

“I like Silver Diner,” Deb agreed.

A quick look in the rear-view mirror showed that the girl looked incredibly relieved that he was being so considerate. That wouldn’t do. Talks were going to have to happen. While he might not be the biggest fan of Deb, he was a smart enough man and father to recognize the issues he had with her had underlying causes he was unaware of. If she needed someone to be an actual parent to her, he’d do it, of course, even if she wasn’t dating his daughter. If a kid needed him, he would dad them as long as it took to make them feel better.

\---

“Where are we?” Lex asked as Emma parked the car outside a big house thing.

“This is where my kooky reclusive biology professor lives,” Emma explained.

Everyone exited the car and followed Emma to the door where she rang the doorbell and knocked. There was a silent moment before the sound of metal sliding and the door opening to reveal a man in his fifties that they were all at least slightly familiar with due to visiting Emma while she sat with him during his curing and recovery process. He looked a bit under the weather with bags under his wild looking eyes.

Hannah quite liked him though this was her first time meeting him. She could feel him quite strongly, like she could Lex and Mr. McNamera, and he was funny. He was also… very sad and lonely. That made Hannah sad, she wanted him to be happier. Sometimes people were just sad though, and Hannah couldn’t fix it entirely. She was glad, at least, that Emma was his friend. Hannah looked at him in her usual way as she read someone like a book, and he stared right back at her just as silently. Her family was used to her doing this, none of them were used to the professor being so quiet, it seemed, as Emma cleared her throat in an attempt to break the tension of the moment.

“You can hear her too, can’t you?” the professor asked in a whisper, seeming to be shocked.

“Hear who?” Emma asked, again trying to get in the middle of the situation.

“Webby,” Hannah explained.

Everyone went silent for a moment out of surprise. They all knew of Webby, but hadn’t expected to find someone else who could hear her like Hannah and John could. Emma and Paul hadn’t even known the professor had a power at all. People were funny like that. Hannah knew they couldn’t feel things the way she could, but it was still funny how closed off they were to everyone when she was the one who didn’t speak much.

“Well, you’d better all come inside, you’ll catch your death out there,” Hidgens said, breaking the tension finally and ushering everyone inside without further explanation as to what had just happened.

Everyone entered the bunker and Emma busied herself by pouring cups of cocoa and coffee for everyone, the beverage dictated by the age of the recipient. “Now we wait, right?” she asked, sipping on her coffee. Now they waited for the ghosts, for Tom, for morning.

Hidgens nodded and put a hand on her shoulder saying, “Now we wait.”

\---

The kids’ parents both came and picked up their kids, and Tom insisted on them leaving him there. While he had been waiting he had received a text from Paul saying that whatever apocalypse was happening _probably_ wasn’t going to happen that night. Tom had decided then that he would rather get his car from the lot and wait out the traffic than to not have his car at the end of the day, should his family need to run.

It was strange to see the streets of downtown as deserted as they were, even in the night. The only lights were the moon above and the phone in his hand, and the temperature was dropping, leaving his breath hanging in the air. In normal circumstances, the scene would be creepy, but after the fright he’d had, Tom was mostly out of adrenaline to spare. In all, it was like a setting in a horror movie or something, but Tom felt more like a custodian on set than a frightened protagonist.

“Tommy?” a voice called from behind him.

Tom jumped, startled by the strangely family voice, and quickly turned around. He shone his flashlight all around the sidewalk, even across the street but he didn’t see anything. Nobody called him Tommy, nobody but Jane who knew he wasn’t a fan of the nickname but knew he didn’t mind it coming from her. Nobody else was on the street to recognize him in the first place.

“Hello?” he called nervously. Tom knew that voice like a faded memory, but he knew it. There was no way it was real, it couldn’t be.

“Tommy,” the voice repeated, once again from behind him.

He spun around once more, holding his phone’s light still in an attempt to see the speaker. Nothing. There was no one there. Tom wasn’t scared, it wasn’t a fear inducing situation. Rather, he was confused. He knew that voice. He had no reason to fear that voice. Why would he be scared? Part of him wondered if it was a siren-like creature, luring him in with a voice he trusted so dearly, but he brushed that thought aside. If it was, Tom knew he likely didn’t stand a chance as he was unarmed and alone. If not…

“Tommy!” the voice cried, standing behind him again.

Tom once more turned around and called, “Jane?”

The streetlight there flickered, and the image of his wife’s broken body stood there, reaching out to him, before the light flickered off once more and she was gone, leaving Tom once again alone in the silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a gluten allergy so Deb does to :P. I am unstoppable, an uncontrollable force of nature who genuinely needs to go to bed.


	4. How I Let You Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John lost his parents to an alien attack at a young age, and Colonel Wilbur Cross took him in soon after. They tried their best to get through John's childhood and teen years together. Through the good and bad John knew he had his adoptive father at his side. Until, one day, he went through the portal never to return. Now though, it seems he has come back, for better or worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Another chapter so quickly :0. The inspiration for these flashbacks struck so I had to write them before the inspiration goes away. It's a little cute, a little sad, and explains a lot more about John's upbringing and such.
> 
> Scene two mentions bullying, scene three includes references to homophobia and the mentioning of 'Don't Ask Don't Tell', just as a warning for those things.
> 
> Otherwise, I hope you enjoy! If you notice any inconsistencies between things I previously said please ignore them I am very tired. Also I keep accidentally calling him Wilber rather than Wilbur do not ask why I do not know.

Wilbur sat across the kitchen table from his newly adopted son, with his hands flat on the surface and his chin resting on top of them. John was a newly ten year old with messy blond hair that fell to his shoulders, and was entirely focused on what he was drawing. He was very particular about certain things, and Wilbur was learning how to handle that. John didn’t like having his hair brushed but hated it being knitted even more, John didn’t like it when his food touched on his plate, John didn’t like boredom. He did, however, have something of an obsession with aliens, which was equal parts concerning and endearing given everything.

“Whatcha drawin’ there, Johnny?” Wilbur asked finally, giving the boy a smile even though he didn’t look up at him.

“Aliens,” John explained. “The one that made everybody try to kill each other.”

Wilbur sat up a bit to see and sure enough, it was the creature that had landed in Hatchetfield on the Fourth of July, the reason John was an orphan. “Listen, Johnny, I killed that thing. It ain’t never coming back. You’re safe now.”

John shrugged, unimpressed. “More things will come.”

“And when they do I’ll be right here, protecting your goofy little head,” Wilbur said, booping John on the nose.

The boy crinkled his nose and looked up at Wilbur, the full force of those big eyes barring down on his soul all at once. “You aren’t my dad,” he stated.

“That’s true. Your daddy died, ‘cause we weren’t good enough, but we’ll do better. That’s PEIP’s job, to help people and get better. You don’t ever have to call me your daddy, don’t have to call me anythin’ but Wilbur, but no matter what you call me, I’m gonna be here for you, Johnny. You ain’t never gonna be alone again,” Wilbur assured, smiling even wider.

John continued to stare at him for another moment before looking back down at his art. “I am going to be a PEIP.”

“Sure ya are,” Wilbur encouraged. “Betcha gonna do better than I ever will. You got the stuff, Johnny.”

The boy looked up at him and gave him a small smile before beginning to draw a soldier ready to fight the alien he’d previously drawn. Wilbur had never expected to be a father, certainly not a single father, but he was going to do his damnedest by that boy. John had been through enough as it was, if being his father was what he needed, Wilbur would oblige.

\---

“Johnathan Liberty McNamera, get your ass down here you’re gonna miss the bus!” Wilbur shouted from the stairway.

“I’m on time,” John huffed as he came down the stairs, his hood over his head as he made a b-line for the door.

“Whoa whoa whoa hold up now, what’s this all about?” Wilbur asked.

John stopped with his hand on the doorknob and sighed before turning around and throwing off his hood. The currently fourteen year old was still sporting the shiner some boys at school had given him the day before, but that wasn’t the concerning part. No, it was that he wasn’t wearing his usual hat, and that his hair was now cut much shorter than it had been the last Wilbur had seen him. It was a ‘boy’s’ cut, clearly self done given the messy nature of it. Wilbur’s heart broke at the sight.

The bullying had been happening before John was even in his care. John was a very special kid, of course Wilbur thought so, but he certainly had some ticks about him that set him apart from his peers. Wilbur had noticed it right away, but never thought much of it. Back in his day, kids like that, you just said nothing about it and moved right along. Bullies though, bullies weren’t so nice about that sort of thing. They teased John about his hair and his hat, about the way he talked and about his interests. Recently some of the kids had taken to pushing him around, and John was too much of a gentleman to kick their asses right back.

Seeing him there, with his hair cut in a way Wilbur knew John hated (‘cause he hated the feeling of air on his neck and head) just so that maybe the kids would stop being so mean, it tore Wilbur up inside. He’d known it was bad, that it had been escalating since the other boys got the courage to get physical, but the idea that it was enough to break John’s spirit was unbearable. What kind of father was he, if he couldn’t stop this?

Wilbur sighed and walked over to John, putting his hands on his shoulders. “Johnny, I’m gonna tell you somethin’ that doesn’t leave this house, you understand me?” he said quietly.

John nodded, looking a bit confused but just as trusting as ever. The kid didn’t deserve this shit.

“When they come after you today, you give ‘em hell. You hear me? I taught you how to fight, and now I’m givin’ you permission to do so. U.S. Military is giving you permission to kick their asses understand? When somethin’s coming after your very soul like these boys are, you stand your ground, and you give ‘em hell. You don’t give in, you don’t give up, and you sure as hell don’t try to be like them, ‘cause you are John McNamera, and you are stronger than any son of a bitch out there, got it?” Wilbur said, shaking John ever so slightly for emphasis.

John looked up at him, making eye contact for a long second before nodding and pulling away. “Thank you, Wilbur,” he said quietly, looking more confident than he had been when he walked down the stairs.

Wilbur smiled and quickly grabbed an apple from the kitchen, tossing it to John as he opened the door to leave. “We’ll getcha to a barber after school and they’ll sort out that mess you’ve got goin’ on. If ya beat those assholes up, I’ll even take ya to Pizza Pete’s after.”

John rolled his eyes as he caught the red apple and smiled. “I am not stepping foot in that place.”

“Bah! You’re no fun,” Wilbur replied, “now get to the bus stop already!”

\---

John had a buzz cut. John was displeased. It was necessary though, boot camp commanded it. He needed to do basics and then he was going to go to college to study tactics and such so he could get a commission. Once he started college in the fall, he was out of boot camp, he was going to grow his hair out again, but for the moment he had his hat on any time it wasn’t necessary for it to be away. The guys thought his attachment to the hat was funny, but nobody teased him for long, not when it was clear John was better than them at everything.

Wilbur had been giving him basic training exercises since he was old enough to be sure he wanted to join the military. He’d taught him how to fight too, which had come in handy more than once over the years. In all, he was more physically fit than the majority of the recruits, and already knew the rules of the trade from Wilbur, and from growing up on a base. Having a colonel for an adoptive father came with some other benefits as well, such as Wilbur being able to visit during bootcamp.

“How’s it goin’ then, Johnny? Making any friends?” Wilbur asked as he took a bite of his meal.

John nodded, almost absentmindedly. “I’m not here to make friends, but I have pleasant relationships with most everyone.”

“Good! Better than high school already!” Wilbur exclaimed with a bright smile.

John just nodded again, playing with his food more than eating it. He could feel Wilbur’s smile turn into a frown, and John couldn’t help but rub his eye with his free hand, a thing he did when he was stressed. That only made Wilbur frown more and sit down his fork.

“Johnny, what’s on your mind?” he asked, sounding concerned.

He sighed, partially because he didn’t want to talk about the problem and partially because he felt that at the age of 18 he was too old to be called Johnny. “It’s nothing.”

Wilbur clicked his tongue a few times, shaking his head. “We don’t hold stuff back in this household, Johnathan. What’s so scary you can’t tell your dear old dad?”

“Don’t ask don’t tell,” John said quickly, not looking up from his plate.

Wilbur froze at those words and John could see some of the color bleed from his face. “Johnny-”

“I’m gay, Wilbur.”

There was a long pause and John dreaded the worst. They had never discussed this sort of thing before, it wasn’t the sort of thing you talked about. John knew if he got found out, especially at boot camp, it could end his career before it even began. No, it would. Gay people weren’t allowed in the military. Before he went back so deeply in the closet he never saw the sunlight again, he wanted to tell someone. He wanted to tell Wilbur.

“The founder of PEIP was gay,” Wilbur said quietly, taking a drink from his glass. “We were founded because of a fight between him and his partner that left the other one dead. PEIP has… PEIP’s never listened to rules like ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’, we don’t listen to any of that horse shit. Hell, we got special rules in place to let people live with their partners on base without a word from above. All you’ve gotta do is get through ‘till you can get a commission on base. They’ll accept you immediately ‘cause they know you’ve got your power and all that. All you’ve gotta do is hold strong ‘till then, and call me, if you ever need to talk about it, Johnny. I… I might not be your blood, but I’m still your dad.”

John looked up at Wilbur and gave him a relieved nod. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, Johnny. There’s nothin’ to thank me for,” Wilbur said, waving off the statement with a hand.

“For being the man that you are,” John disagreed. “You raised me right, you have always been there. Thank you. You didn’t have to take me in that day, but you did.”

“And it was the best decision of my life,” Wilbur said, playfully clicking his glass with John’s and taking a drink.

\---

“I met a boy,” John said as he cut the meat for dinner. He’d come home for break and he thought he should share the news.

Xander was quite a nice young man, with a brain that dazzled him and a face so handsome John thought he might stutter. John didn’t stutter. John spoke very clearly and precisely so that he was sure people would understand him. His heart skipped a beat when Xander smiled though, and all John could do was blush and try to continue conversation. It always went back to aliens. He could talk about aliens. Talking _to_ Xander _about_ aliens was harder.

“God damn it, John, didn’t I say wait ‘till you got your commission?” Wilbur cried in a teasing tone, throwing an apple at him.

John caught it and smiled slightly, throwing it back at him. “No throwing food in the kitchen. House rules.”

“Well I made the house rules and I will throw as many apples as I want. Tell me about him, what’s he like?” Wilbur asked, taking a bite of the apple.

“He is the definition of ‘tall, dark, and handsome’. He’s a physics major, and wants to go into theoretical physics. He’s good, Wilbur, he can think through things faster than anyone working here now and does it for fun after doing his actual homework,” John said, trying to sound as though he was talking about a potential hire and not the boy he had been going on a few dates with.

“Okay okay, so he’s smart, what else?” Wilbur said with a bright smile.

John couldn’t help the blush creeping up his face and he wished desperately he could actually grow a beard so he could hide his cheeks from the world. “He is very nice. He is funny, though he can tell some terrible jokes about space that involve puns. He is interested in aliens and the greater universe around us. He has very interesting theories about ice cream.”

Wilbur laughed. “That so? What’s got you so blushy? Is he that handsome?”

“When he talks about physics his eyes light up and he gets so excited he starts pacing. One time he ended up standing on his bed because the concept of dark matter was so exciting for him. I took him to a party at my fraternity, and he ended up giving a lesson on the string theory to everyone there. I have no idea how he did it, but it happened,” John said with a laugh. “None of them understood a word he was saying! They were just as entranced as I was.”

“But is he hot,” Wilbur goaded.

John didn’t even have to answer as his blush only grew. “He is very handsome.”

“That’s my boy,” Wilbur teased. “Now finish cutting up the meat, or dinner will just be the side dish I’m making and apples.”

\---

The room was silent. Even the men’s breathing was too quiet to hear, and neither wanted to break it. Wilbur had made a decision, a stupid decision, and now they were waiting for the go. John hated it. He hated the portal and he hated that they kept trying to send people through only for them to show up dead within five minutes. At least they created a suit this time, a suit to protect Wilbur when he went inside. They had no idea if it would work, or what would happen afterwards. This was a death sentence.

“Johnny-”

“Save it,” John muttered, rubbing his eyes hard.

“John, listen to me, I have to do this. We have to know what’s over there. I’m the best shot they’ve got besides you, ‘cause we’ve got the connection the others don’t. If anyone can survive, it’ll be me,” Wilbur said quietly.

“And Janis Carter was told the same exact thing before she returned as a pile of bones and flesh,” John stated.

“She didn’t have a suit,” Wilbur sighed.

“And we don’t know the suit will protect you!” John shouted. “We have every reason to suspect it won’t, and even then? Even then, if you stray too far from the portal there is no way we can know you’ll find your way back. You are a deadman if you go in there!”

“And if I don’t they’ll order you through! Someone with our power has to go through there and see if the suit works!” Wilbur shouted back, standing up. “I am your commanding officer, you’re just a Lieutenant! Who is more important to them?”

John was silent, rubbing his eyes.

“Who is more important to me?” Wilbur asked, quieter this time.

“You promised me. You promised me I would never be alone again,” John said quietly.

Wilbur sat back down and put a hand on John’s knee. “You’ve got Xander. I can tell you two are gonna do so much good together in the world. You two might just manage to fix what’s broken and make this shithole a better place. Just promise me one thing, you hear me?”

“What is it?” John asked, tears in his eyes.

“Invite me to your inevitable wedding. At least send a card,” Wilbur said, giving John a sad smile before pulling the man into a hug.

\---

“They’ve remodeled this place since I was last here,” Wilbur stated, taking a bite of his green apple.

John knew this was a dream, something his mind created after going into the portal without protection. He was in a room at the hospital, with Xander sleeping silently in the other bed, and Wilbur was leaning against the wall across from him. It was impossible for it to be true, because Wilbur was dead. His transmission had gone on for three days as he explored the Black and White, having lost his way upon entering it, until the suit ran out of power. Wilbur was dead.

“This is a dream,” John mumbled, though the fact that the skin on his face stung made that fact a bit harder to believe.

“You sure about that, Johnny? Suppose it doesn’t matter either way, does it?” Wilbur asked. “I do like what they’ve done with the place. Still as small as ever but the lighting is so much better.”

John didn’t respond, he had no reason to. If this was a dream, which it had to be, he would eventually wake up and all would be well. If it wasn’t, then perhaps it was an effect of exposure. Seeing ghosts wasn’t exactly a dream of his, so he wasn’t going to enjoy this if that was the case, but if it was, so be it. What choice did he have?

“You know, you’re the whole reason this happened. It’s true. You took Xander’s soul out of the Black and White, and with it you managed to free so many more. You opened Pandora's box, Johnny, and the souls of the dead have come out to play. Do you think you’re ready to play when Halloween comes? You always did hate trick or treat, didn’t you? You always thought of it as lying,” Wilbur said.

“Who is behind this? Why did they do it?” John asked. If this was real, he might as well get something out of it.

“Why, I already told you, Johnny! Weren’t you listening? Wiggly needed a way to get me into this plane of reality, and you were the sucker he suckered into opening up the gate for us to exit through. This is just phase one, you’re gonna _love_ what comes next,” Wiley said with a wicked smile, sitting his partially eaten apple to the side and disappearing as John found the world once more going black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes I think about how technically John and Tom went to high school together for two years, as well as Becky. To be fair, Tom did not know John existed in high school. John is very glad when people do not remember him from high school because of the bullying.


	5. You Went and Opened The Box

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Houston family waits for Tom to arrive while discussing what might be happening. When Tom arrives, everyone is both relieved and concerned. Bill has a panic attack. Charlotte sees a ghost and scared the hell out of Ted. John and Schaeffer update each other on what they know of the situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hannah was born on the fourth of October in 2009, which was a full moon! This isn't necessarily the pre-birthday celebration she was expecting, but nothing has ever gone normally in her life, so she is not about to complain. Also she thinks Hidgens is Very Old because his hair is gray.
> 
> Warning, in the second scene Bill has a panic attack due to what happened the day of the Apotheosis and Alice tries her best to help.

Hannah sipped on her cocoa as she sat between Lex and Ethan on the couch of the professor’s living room. They had a blanket over their legs and it was very soft. She felt safe and warm and was in between the two people she felt safest with, knowing everyone else she loved was going to be fine as well. Tim was cuddling with Emma and Paul on the other couch and Becky sat in a comfortable chair while the professor paced between them.

“So the power outage came from the PEIP base,” the professor stated as he paced, talking with his hands as he did.

“As far as we could tell,” Emma agreed.

The professor nodded, stopping briefly to scratch his chin, a hand on his hip. “What does it have to do with what I heard?” he asked, more to himself than anyone else.

Emma looked concerned though, leaning forward. “You heard? Professor, are you okay? You should really sit down, your body can’t stay up this long.”

Hidgens rolled his eyes and sat down on the coffee table. “I’m fine, Emma, I just occasionally put things together that I don’t understand at the time of receiving them. How do you think I knew that the Singing Apocalypse was coming?”

“Webby,” Hannah stated quietly, sipping on her cocoa once more.

The professor froze at the name, his eyes wide as he looked at Hannah. “So it’s true, you are like me?”

Hannah nodded and shrugged. “Lex too.”

“I can’t hear Webby though,” Lex added, sounding confused. “I’m like, the exact opposite side of the ‘Seeing/Engaging’ spectrum so I can interact with stuff in the Black and White but I can’t see the future or hear Webby or anything like that. Watch this.” Lex focused on the bottle of vodka sitting on the bookshelf beside the television and reached out a hand. With concentration, the bottle was suddenly in her hand rather than where it had previously been. “I pulled it into the Black and White and then back out again. Apparently John’s never met anyone else who can do that, or who knows all the stuff Hannah knows.”

Hidgens stared in awe for a moment, clearly processing what was happening. Hannah could tell he had never met anyone else who had ever heard Webby before, and it made her feel a bit sad for him. He had gone through so many years, so many that his hair went gray, while thinking he was crazy, or that he was the only person on the planet like them. No wonder he looked so wild in his eyes. Hannah thought he must feel incredibly alone, like the only one on the planet who knew the things he knew. She knew how lonely that was, but she’d had Lex and Ethan, and she was only nine years of age.

Almost ten! Her birthday was so close! It was only a day away! In less than 24 hours she would be double digits! Hannah thought it probably would be forgotten in the chaos that was happening, but that was okay, it was exciting nevertheless. If her dad could just get to the bunker place safely, that would be enough.

“It is a spectrum then? I must be on the ‘Seeing’ side then,” Hidgens muttered, standing up once more.

Emma stood and sat him back down on the coffee table. “You’re an old man with weak bones, sit down!”

“I am not that old!” he protested, though he did return to his spot. “Let me pace.”

“You’ve paced enough for one day, Professor,” Emma scolded.

“I will never pace enough!” he disagreed.

Emma sighed and placed his coffee into his shaking hands. “Your trembling says otherwise.”

There was a sudden banging at the front door and Emma rushed to open it. Tom stumbled through the doorway, throwing his hat to the side and slamming the door shut behind him as he held onto Emma for stability. He was pale, Hannah noted, and shaking. Even so, he was alive. He was alive and safe and everything was going to be alright.

“Jesus Christ, Emma, Jesus Christ,” Tom muttered as he threw off his coat, wiping the sweat from his forehead as though he was overheated despite the chill outside.

“Tom, my God, what’s going on?” Emma said, rushing him to the living room to sit down where she had been sitting.

Tom sat down and pulled Tim into his lap, holding him tightly and kissing his head. Hannah didn’t like how he felt, he was unsettled, not quite scared clearly unwell. He wasn’t scared, but it was something similar, like the feeling when you’re outside in the dark when nothing else was around but the sounds of the bugs in the grass, but you can just feel the eyes on you that you know aren’t there but stare into your soul nevertheless. Hannah didn’t like that feeling. She rushed over and sat on his lap beside Tim, getting cuddled and kissed on the head as well.

“Tom?” Becky asked, standing up from her chair. “Want me to get you something to drink? Maybe something a little stronger than coffee?”

He sniffled and nodded, holding his children tightly. Being around them was helping, Hannah knew, but that feeling wasn’t going to shake easily, not until the sun rose in the morning and proved the ghosts of one's regrets and fears were nothing more than figments of the past, or perhaps the branch outside your window. Becky took the vodka from Lex and went to the kitchen, soon returning with a glass for him. Tom took a sip and sat it aside.

“I’m sorry I gave you all a fright there,” he finally said, wiping at his face once more. No, he wasn’t scared, it was something deeper than that, unsettled at the foundation rather than on the surface where most people use the word.

“What happened?” Lex asked, making grabby hands to get the bottle back from Becky who pointedly ignored her.

“I saw Jane,” Tom said, his expression an unsettled blankness as he tried to process what he’d seen.

“Ghosts,” the professor agreed. “They came out of the portal tonight. We’re going to have to find a way to put them back in.”

\---

It was 9:00 pm when Bill got the text from Paul saying that Hatchetfield was probably fine and not to worry too much. It was 9:30 when he got the text from him saying there were probably ghosts but that otherwise things were probably fine. It was 10:00 pm that, while he was driving Deb home, he got the text saying that the Houston Crew (Paul included himself in this despite him nor Emma having the last name Houston) were staying at the professor’s bunker for the night, just in case.

It was 10:10 pm when Bill had to pull the car over in order step out of it and shout at the trees, “WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!”

The trees did not answer, and by 10:20 pm Deb was in her house, safe and sound. Bill continued on to their home as another text came through, and Bill resisted the urge to groan. “What is it now, Hon?”

“Uncle Paul says he can’t get a hold of Ted or Charlotte but that he’s going to continue trying,” Alice said.

“Tell him to stop!” Bill said quickly, immediately assuming what was occupying the two. “Tell him not to worry about them until the morning, if everything is as fine as he says, they’re fine. They’d call if there was a problem.”

“Do you think they-”

“Don’t ask, I am not going to picture anything and neither are you,” Bill stated.

Alice nodded, making a face as she texted Paul back. “This has been a really weird night,” she stated with a yawn.

“Past everyone’s bedtime,” Bill agreed, keeping his eyes on the road.

“Do I really have to go to school tomorrow?” Alice asked as she looked out the window.

Bill thought about it, weighing the pros and cons. It had been quite the frightening night, and they were certainly going to be going to bed after midnight at the rate things were going. Poor Alice was going to be so tired at school. Then, that creeping fear came back that haunted him from before, of her being trapped at the school, of her dying at the school, of her killing him-

He slammed on the brakes quickly and closed his eyes, trying to even out his breathing. Things were fine. Everything was fine. Alice was fine, he was fine, nobody was dead, the school wasn’t going to kill anyone. That didn’t stop the images of Alice covered in blue blood from her mouth and the claw marks on her arms as she sang about how terrible of a father he’d been. It didn’t stop the quiet sob from choking its way out of his throat as he squeezed his eyes even tighter.

“Dad?” Alice asked cautiously. “I don’t have to go to school tomorrow, it’s okay. I won’t go, Deb won’t go, you can stay home too. We can watch movies, we haven’t watched Moana in a while.” 

That pulled another sob from him and he covered his face quickly. The last thing he needed was to have a breakdown in front of his daughter on a deserted road when the car wasn’t even in park. That wasn’t safe! And, he didn’t want her to see him like this, so torn up by the memories she didn’t have, the fear she didn’t remember. Yes, she remembered dying, and wishing for him to be there, but she didn’t remember the rest, thank God.

Alice pulled the gear shift so the car would be in park and got out, going around the car and opening up her dad’s side. She hugged him closer than she would have been able to while still in the car and said, “I know, it’s okay to cry. I won’t freak or anything. It’s okay to be scared.”

Bill couldn’t stop the tears after that, clinging to his daughter as he shook. He couldn’t tell her why he was crying, he couldn’t explain what happened. Paul had been forbidden from telling her as well. She couldn’t know what happened. She couldn’t know what she did. It would break her heart the same way it broke his every time he looked at her. He knew she was better now, but that didn’t mean she didn’t die, it didn’t mean she didn’t kill him. It didn’t mean he hadn’t failed her in so many ways that it resulted in both of their deaths.

But Alice couldn’t know. She should never have to live with that burden.

“Do you need me to drive home? I got my learner’s permit in my bag, and I don’t think anybody’s gonna pull me over tonight even if I did mess up,” Alice suggested.

Bill nodded and unbuckled his belt. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. For everything- I-”

“Dad, Dad, stop apologizing, you’ve done it a million times,” Alice said, squeezing his hand three times as she helped him out of the car. “The past is past, let’s live in the present, okay?”

He laughed a bit as he went around and sat in the passenger’s seat. “You’re right. I’m s- no… You’re right,” Bill said as he buckled back up and rubbed away his tears. “No school tomorrow. No Moana either, we’re watching Brave.”

“Whatever you say, Dad,” Alice replied with a smile as she got in the driver’s seat and the pair continued home.

\---

“I have fifty unread messages from Paul,” Ted stated as he finally checked his phone.

“Funny, I have about the same. Wonder what’s got him so talkative this evening,” Charlotte said as she sat her phone down without reading them.

Ted shrugged, breezing through the messages. “Something about the power outage, something about ghosts, I don’t know. I think he got spooked by the power outage. Everybody’s been so jumpy since the Apotheosis, it’s probably just that.”

“He did last longer than anybody else except Emma, it’s no wonder he’s scared. Are you scared?” Charlotte asked, gently tracing her fingers across his chest.

Ted leaned down and kissed her head. “Nah, I’m not scared. It’s just a power outage, nothing big. I’ve got anything I’d worried about right here with me, so everything is just fine.”

Charlotte smiled up at him and kissed his chin. “Would you be a dear and grab my chair from the living room? I want to make us something to eat.”

“Shit I forgot,” he said as he sat up and stretched.

“It’s no problem. I’ll make us some cookies from the cookie dough we have in the fridge and you can get your shower,” she suggested as Ted left and returned with the chair, assisting her into it.

“Sounds like a plan,” Ted said, giving her one last kiss on the forehead before heading to the bathroom.

Charlotte rolled herself to the kitchen and set the oven to preheat with the stick they had in the kitchen for her. She busied herself with putting spheres of dough on the cookie tray until there were enough, then placed them in the oven, setting a timer on her phone. It was then that she read through Paul’s texts, but didn’t think much of it. They all read like someone who had seen his shadow at the wrong moment and panicked about it. She wasn’t concerned until she saw the text from Tom that just said, ‘Everything’s fine.’ and then ‘Watch out for ghosts’.

“Charlotte?” a voice called, causing Charlotte to jump.

She quickly looked around the room but didn’t see anyone. Ted was in the shower, and the voice was familiar, but it couldn’t be him. He was dead. Both Tom and Paul had mentioned ghosts though… No, that was silly. It was Halloween season, their words were just spooking her, that was all.

Charlotte turned back to check on the cookies when she heard another, “Charlotte?” from behind her. She rolled her chair to face out this time, but still saw no one.

“Please leave me alone, I’m making cookies,” she stated, returning to the task at hand.

“Charlotte!” Sam shouted.

Charlotte looked in the direction of the voice, and this time she saw Sam, translucent, standing in the pantry with his head busted open and his brain out of his head. She screamed and rolled her chair away from him, ignoring the oven as she attempted to roll backwards. Behind her, she heard Ted stumbling in the shower and turned to look at him as he, still soap covered, showed up with the gun they’d gotten, pointing it around frantically. Charlotte looked back to the pantry and noticed Sam was gone.

“Oh my,” she said, clutching her chest. “I… I think Paul might have been right.”

“Right about what?!” Ted asked, running a hand through his damp hair.

“I just saw Sam,” Charlotte said with a gulp, terror gripping her like it hadn’t in a long time. If Sam was back, and Sam was angry, what was he going to do to them? What could he do to them? He wasn’t a nice man when he was angry.

\---

“What time?” John slurred as he attempted to sit up.

“11:28, Sir,” Schaeffer replied, gently returning him to his previous position. “You shouldn’t sit up right now. It’ll mess up the ointments they’ve got on your skin.”

“Xander?” he asked, accepting both statements without argument. John could see Xander in the other bed in the room, but that didn’t tell him his status. He was unconscious, that much John knew. Otherwise he had no idea.

“Alive, thanks to you. The doctors say that shock definitely killed him. They wouldn’t have been able to bring him back,” Schaeffer said. “He’s got a burn on his hand from the electricity, and was having difficulty breathing when they first brought him in, now he’s just sound asleep. They’ve got him on a machine to make it easier for him to breathe until they’re sure he can do it fine on his own. We won’t know the full extent of the damage until he wakes up though.”

John nodded, and regretted the decision because it caused the skin on his neck to remind him of his jaunt into the Black and White. “The portal?”

“We can’t shut it down and we’re still trying to get electricity back to the town. Our generators in the Headquarters Building are shot, but the ones here in the hospital are fine. What machines are still functioning on base are getting strange energy readings from the portal room and the base in general. We aren’t sure what’s going on,” Schaeffer explained.

He sighed and stared at the ceiling. It was all his fault, but he couldn’t have let Xander die when he knew he could save him. John couldn’t do that. “Ghosts. They followed Xander through. Wiggly is using it to cause a distraction while his servants plan their real plots,” John said.

“How do you know that?” Schaeffer asked, looking taken aback. It was fair, John had been unconscious for the last three hours or so.

Still, one look at the tray at his bedside and the half eaten green apple sitting on it, John knew that conversation was more than just a dream. “Wilbur’s back, and he’s working for the forces of darkness.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this all John's fault? Not necessarily. Wiggly has some blame as well. Does John regret his actions? To save Xander's life? Never.


	6. Fill Your Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bunch of exposition is thrown out on the table by Professor Hidgens over breakfast. Tom and Becky also have a conversation about their relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seven pages. Seven pages of basically all exposition I am sorry but it had to happen. I will upload another chapter soon with more action and such rather than all talking like this chapter is, but this was the only way to get the information out to you in a concise and somewhat understandable manner. Most confusion related to what is explained by Hidgens is supposed to be there because the man only ever partially knows what he's talking about.

Tom woke to the smell of bacon in a room he did not recognize with Hannah and Tim cuddled up on either side of him. It took him a moment before he remembered where he was and why, but after he did Tom gently awoke the children. Tim had always been a heavy sleeper, and didn’t seem to want to wake up, but Hannah sat up and yawned, rubbing her eyes as she looked around.

“Happy birthday, Birthday girl,” Tom said quietly, giving her a warm smile as he messed up her hair.

She laughed a bit and smiled before climbing over him and running out the door to see what breakfast was being served. Tom prayed it was Becky cooking and not the professor, because he did not trust that man in a kitchen.

“Come on, Timmy, time to wake up,” Tom said, shaking Tim a bit more.

Tim groaned and stretched before sleepily rubbing his eyes, looking confused. “Where are we?”

“We’re at Emma’s professor’s house. We’re gonna go home after breakfast, and celebrate your sister turning ten,” Tom explained.

The young boy nodded and shuffled out of the room. Tom smiled and shook his head as he did. He could already see Tim years older, addicted to coffee in order to wake up in the morning, just like his mother and his aunt. The thought of Jane made his smile fall as he remembered the night before. Frankly, Tom didn’t want to face another apocalypse. He wanted to just have a normal life with his family. Unfortunately for that dream, he worked for PEIP, and nothing was ever going to be simple.

Tom left the bedroom he and the kids had shared for the night and saw that the others were already out. Emma was leaning on Paul while sitting on the couch and drinking coffee, looking like the living dead. Paul on the other hand, was happily having a conversation with Ethan and Lex about… movies? He suspected it was movies, he didn’t listen in long enough to see. Becky was in the kitchen and the professor was sitting with Hannah and Tim at the dining table. He walked into the kitchen to get himself a cup of coffee and paused as he passed her.

“Becky…” he said quietly, so the others wouldn’t hear.

“I’m sorry about last night. It wasn’t a good time to for us-”

Tom placed a hand on her arm and pulled her gently so she would look at him. “The timing was fine. There’s no way we could have predicted…”

“If it’s too soon-”

“No no no! It’s… It’s not that! I mean, it’s always going to be too soon, but it’s been almost two years and you’ve been helping since last December, and-”

“I kissed you without asking-”

Tom pulled her into a kiss and gently brushed the hair out of her eyes before stepping back. “Now we’ve both kissed the other without asking.”

Becky stood there for a moment before laughing a bit and looking out to see if anyone in the other room had seen them. “We said we’d go slow.”

“We did, and if Jane’s… ghost… is really around it isn’t a great time… But I think we have the right to try, slowly,” Tom said, taking her hands in his.

“Nothing with a label,” Becky agreed, “not until this is all over. We don’t want to upset her in case the professor is right and she’s going to get stronger as time passes.”

“Nothing at night. He said they don’t probably can’t manifest in the day right now, so nothing after dark, but hand holding and kisses?” he suggested.

“I think during the day we can hold hands and kiss sometimes,” she agreed, kissing his cheek and returning to the cooking.

“So you’re coming to Hannah’s birthday party?” Tom asked, bringing his voice back to a normal volume.

“We heard what you two were saying!” Lex called from the other room.

“Damn it,” Tom muttered.

“KISS!” Ethan shouted.

Tom waved them both off, his face turning red. Everyone laughed, including Becky who hugged him so he could hide his face against her. They didn't need to know that when he was embarrassed he turned entirely red because he blushed so brightly. “You’re all assholes!” he shouted.

“Dude, just kiss already,” Emma muttered.

“EMMA AGREES!” Ethan shouted.

Tom flipped off the group in the living room, causing more laughter. He rolled his eyes at them and assisted Becky in putting the bacon and eggs on plates for everyone. Soon they were all sitting at the dining room table, happily eating. He was glad they were all in good spirits after the day before, it meant they could celebrate Hannah's birthday without too much worry hanging over their heads.

"I finally heard back from Charlotte and Ted last night," Paul said, "apparently she saw Sam and was scared the rest of the night."

"Jeez I can imagine. Hope he didn't look like he did when he died," Emma replied as she ate.

"They do," Tom said quietly, not looking up from his plate. "They look like they did when they died."

Emma coughed in shock as she choked momentarily on her food. She hadn't seen her sister's body because she hadn't made the funeral, but she had heard from Tom that it wasn't pretty. He didn't want Emma to see her sister like that, but there was a good chance she would, and neither of them were looking forward to it.

"I have a hypothesis," the professor said.

"About?" Emma asked.

"Why Jane died," he explained, gaining everyone's attention as he did.

"It was an accident," Tom said defensively. "I didn't see the other car's lights, it hit on her side of the car-" he broke off, unable to continue as the images of the crash flashed through his mind.

Becky put a hand on his shoulder to ground him, and squeezed it gently. "It wasn't your fault."

"It wasn't! It was the universe!" the professor agreed.

Everyone looked at him again, entirely confused. Tom didn't know what to think of the eccentric man on a good day, but this was taking it to another level. It was an accident, a terrible accident, and that was that. He didn't know if it would be better or worse if there really was some grand design that had Jane killed.

"Professor-"

"Emma, you wouldn't have come back to Hatchetfield if Jane hadn't died, correct?" the professor asked.

"Well, yeah, I never planned on coming back," Emma said slowly.

"Precisely. And Paul, the day of the Apotheosis, you ran to Beanies to find Emma, correct?" he asked.

Paul, looking quite confused, nodded. "I needed to make sure she was alright."

"What would you have done if you had never met her?" Hidgens asked.

"Well… I probably would have stayed in the office until we ran out into the alleyway together," Paul said.

"And you wouldn't have come here. You wouldn't have thought to blow up the meteor to stop the apocalypse. You and your friends would have died, if not in that alley than somewhere else. Tom and Tim wouldn't have run into Ethan and Hannah on the road because he stopped to pick Emma up. Maybe Tom would have gotten into the base, maybe he would have been stopped, but he wouldn't have a reason to stick around the base if it weren't for you, so he wouldn't have helped invent the machine that cured everyone. Long story short, the planet would have ended in two weeks, tops," the professor concluded.

Everyone sat in silence as they proceeded what Hidgens was saying. They looked to Emma, who looked confused and concerned by the development, unsure what to think of it all. Tom didn't know what to think either, but he knew the man was right.

"What does it mean?" Emma finally asked.

"It means you're the tie that binds us all together. You're the tie that binds everything together. It's why the Hive wanted you so desperately, if you fell to them, everyone would fall because you are the tie that binds.

"I have a theory, created with the help of Webby, about how the universe works. There is a human embodiment of the universe and its will, what it stands for and what it wants. That person is the Core, or the Heart. There's always a Heart, when one dies another is chosen. This person doesn't know how important they are, and just lives their life casually impacting reality through their ties with others. Emma, I think that Heart is you, and I think Jane was the one before you," the professor concluded.

"So you're saying the universe… killed Jane… so Emma could be the new Heart… so the Apotheosis would fail," Tom clarified.

"Precisely. Paul needed a reason to blow up the meteor, he needed a push, a purpose, a drive. What he needed was Emma," Hidgens agreed.

"Why me?" Paul asked, his food entirely forgotten.

The professor sat up straight and replied, "Because every Heart must have its Guardian."

"Guardian?" Emma asked.

"Yes! Someone who does not know their role but cares so deeply for the Heart that they'd do whatever it takes to save them, even sacrificing themselves in an explosion in order to stop an alien invasion," Hidgens stated, staring directly at Paul.

Paul looked taken aback, but then seemed to consider what he was being told. Tom had no idea what was going on in his head, but something similar was going on in his own. "Is it possible… that I might have been Jane's? Her Guardian I mean."

Hidgens nodded solemnly. "From what Webby has told me, the role tends to be filled by lovers and siblings, always someone roughly the same age as the other who cares more about the safety of the Heart than their own. If you think that fits you, I wouldn't be surprised. It would explain why she manifested to you before her sister or her son as well, it’s likely easier for them to be seen by those who have died and returned, or those with strong bonds."

"Are there other roles?" Lex asked, trying to casually change the subject from the ghost of her dad's dead wife.

"Yes! There are a few. I don't understand them as clearly, but I do know their names. The other most important role, alongside the Heart, is the Soul, who has their own Guardian. From what I know their job is to keep reality in order and to maintain the correct timeline. I don't know who this person is, but they likely live in Hatchetfield. There are also Warriors of Light, people who have proven themselves to be truly good people willing to fight the evil of the universe even if it costs them their lives," Hidgens explained.

"So a cop and a Guardian but for the whole universe and not just one person," Ethan said.

"In a way, yes. Unlike the others, there is usually more than one Warrior at a time. I think the General might be one, but I am uncertain. Hannah, do you know who any of those roles are?" Hidgens asked.

Hannah nodded but offered no explanation, just continued eating her bacon.

"There is only ever one Heart at a time. They only have one Guardian. The Soul is more tricky. Webby has not explained it to me much," Hidgens explained. "I do think the Soul likely knows their role, unlike any of the others, but they likely would never tell us."

"Does it matter?" Lex asked.

Hidgens nodded and shrugged. "To a degree. When shit hits the fan, we need to know who to protect and who to trust. The Heart can't be lost or so is the universe."

"Can't they just pick another Heart?" Becky asked.

"Upon the full and complete death of the previous one, yes. If they linger, if their mind is controlled and their spirit is still present, no. If Emma was lost in the Apotheosis, the world would have lost," Hidgens explained.

"What if something happens to the Soul?" Ethan asked, looking as if he was growing concerned.

"I don't know," Hidgens admitted.

"Why did General McNamara call me a Warrior if I'm not?" Paul asked.

The professor shrugged once more. "A Warrior and a Guardian are fundamentally the same, while one is more interested in protecting one person and the other is attempting to protect humanity. It’s possible he was confused in his state, or that he knew no one else would understand what he was talking about and would be able to connect you to ‘the warrior’ because you destroyed the meteor.”

“Is it why I had a harder time getting out of the Black and White than normal people?” Paul asked. He was, aside from Lex, the only one he knew that needed a little push to return to his body.

“It very well could be,” Hidgens said. “My return wasn’t difficult because I had seen my way through the Black and White before, I knew my way back. If you are the Heart’s Guardian as I believe you to be, you most certainly have a thread of a connection to the Black and White, enough of one to know when danger is around and to make it slightly more difficult to return to our plane of existence.”

“Does that mean I have a connection?” Emma asked. “Or Tom? Or whoever is the Soul and their Guardian?”

“I believe the Soul has a deep and fundamental connection to the Black and White, which allows them to influence our reality to keep it on the correct path. I believe you, Emma, don’t necessarily have a connection to the Black and White as the Heart, but you are deeply connected to our own reality in ways none of us can understand. I don’t know enough about how Warriors work to know if Tom has a connection, but he likely retains his ‘gut feeling’ that something is wrong from being a Guardian in the past. You will have to ask the General about it when you see him next, he likely knows more than I do,” Hidgens said.  
“Who is Webby?” Lex asked after a moment. “How is she connected to all this?”

Professor Hidgens thought about the question for a moment, looking off into the distance. “She’s a benevolent force within the Black and White, one deeply connected to the fabric of all realities. Perhaps she’s the one that creates that fabric with the webs she spins, perhaps she is just a good creature with knowledge beyond what one would expect. Either way, she can be trusted.”

“How does this affect our current problem?” Tom asked.

The older man shrugged. “If I am correct, and you will want to ask the General to be sure, I feel he knows more than he lets on, then we know we must protect Emma in this time of crisis. We can also rest assured there’s someone in town who can help us. The Soul is likely immune to the control of others, so they will be able to assist us without us having to worry they are corrupted.”

“But you have no idea who ‘the Soul’ is,” Paul stated.

“Correct, but the General might,” Hidgens replied.

“Both John and Xander went into the hospital last night. From the message I got, the portal malfunctioned and caused the electrical surge that knocked out the power, and Xander was touching the machine at the time, which gave him a bad shock. John had to go into the portal to bring him back, and hadn’t been wearing a suit at the time so he got slightly disintegrated, but he’ll be fine,” Becky said. “They’ll probably keep them both over the weekend just to be safe.”

“I’ll ask him about it when I have my meeting with him on Monday,” Lex said. “It can wait that long, if the ghosts really aren’t strong enough to do anything bad yet. Besides, it’s Hannah’s birthday, we have to celebrate.”

“Lex is right. It’s Hannah’s birthday, ghosts be damned, we’re celebrating it. The party is at 5 pm at Pizza Pete’s like we had planned, and we are going to have a good time,” Tom stated, almost sounding like an order.

Talk of things none of them understood could wait until after they celebrated the birthday of Little Miss Hannah. They had time, as far as they knew, and they weren’t going to get far until John and Xander were well enough to assist them. None of them really knew what to make of the information they had been given, but they were still quite curious as to the identities of the Soul and their Guardian, should any of that truly exist in the first place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you guess who the Soul and their Guardian is? It should be noted that the role can be shared by more than one person if the job is spread evenly between them, though Hidgens did not explain what that job is or what they can do particularly well. The man is full of half explanations and understandings that make no sense without the entire context. The rest of the context will be given eventually!


	7. Made in America

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xander is... a BIT displeased with the whole ghost situation but accepts that it is how the next month is going to go. Deb contemplates herself, her situation, her friends, and her love for Alice. Hannah has her birthday party at Pizza Pete's. Surprisingly nothing goes particularly wrong in this chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning! Deb's lament has a lot of bad self talk thoughts and talks about strict parenting in a bad light and about Alice's death and has trace themes of homophobia and Not Nice To Child Times. I was having a real bad time tonight so Deb gets my anxiety. Alas, it does not fix my situation, but at least it exists in the world. MY situation is nothing like Deb's do not fear, her problems were pre-planned, my personal need to get out emotions was not, hence it going on a bit longer than anticipated. 
> 
> In other news, I love you guys! Don't worry, there will eventually be resolution! I do love you all, your comments keep me going. It's been a rough time for me in real life and this is helping me through, thank you!

Xander woke up around noon. At first it was very exciting because it was rare that John could sit quietly and let him sleep that late, then he was concerned. Sure enough, he was in the hospital, and the memories of the night before came flooding back to him. It was all blurry though, he barely remembered a thing that happened before they arrived at the hospital “John?” Xander croaked.

“I’m here,” John said from the other bed in the room.

He quickly looked over at him, and was relieved that John seemed relatively unharmed. The places where his skin had been exposed to the Black and White were all bandaged up, save his face which he knew was likely due to John not liking when things were on his face. John appeared to have a bad sunburn or something, enough layers of skin were missing to give him a reddish tint despite the ointments they had clearly put all over his face and neck. He was alright though, he was reading a book, and he was alright.

“What did you do?” Xander finally asked as the anxiety he had been holding dissipated.

John was silent for a moment before putting the bookmark into the book and closing it with a sigh. “You died, Xander. The shock you received from the portal was enough to kill you. I stepped into the portal and retrieved your soul which was right at the entrance and returned it to our reality, which led it to return to your body.”

Xander processed that statement for a moment before blinking and saying, “Wilbur was there.”

“Yes he was,” John said, though he didn’t say much more.

“John, tell me everything. I can’t help fix the problem if I don’t know what the problem is,” Xander said with a sigh.

John was silent for another moment, collecting his thoughts before he said, “Because of the malfunction that the portal had, I was able to bring you back through without difficulty. Unfortunately when I did that, it opened the door for the rest of the human spirits in the Black and White to come out as well.”

“Jesus Christ, John!” Xander cried, rubbing his forehead.

“It won’t be impossible to fix this, we just need to find a way to fix the portal and they will be returned to the Black and White on November 1st as all wandering spirits are,” John explained.

“So we wait a month with ghosts causing problems and exposing the threats of the universe to the town because you couldn’t let me go,” Xander stated.

“Of course I couldn’t, and you would have done the same,” John replied.

“I can’t go into the portal without a suit, John, I would have died instantly, I couldn’t do the same for you,” Xander said.

“But if you could have, you would. It isn’t a problem we can’t solve,” John stated.

“If they gain the strength to possess people there will be hell to pay,” Xander warned.

“Even if they do, they can’t escape Hatchetfield. We planted the circle of salt around the island decades ago in case something like this happened,” John said.

Xander sighed, “Yeah, they can’t get out, but if people are possessed, they could hurt people, other citizens, their families.”

“Unless the labs create something that can contain the spirits and return them to the Black and White our best bet is to fix the portal so that it returns to functioning normally and the spirits can be returned there as they normally would be. In the meantime we find subtle ways to teach the public how to protect themselves, and make sure they don’t find themselves in a weakened state on Halloween night, when the spirits will be strongest,” John said.

They lapsed into silence as they both thought about the current situation. It wasn’t ideal to say the least, but it wasn’t the worst thing they had faced. “Is there anything else?” Xander asked after a minute of quiet.

“Wilbur has returned as well. Because of how he ended up in the Black and White I believe he is not confined to the same rules as a normal spirit. He intends to assist Wiggly in finding a way through into our reality. We need to stop that from happening,” John stated.

“Wiggly?” Xander asked.

“It’s what he called the force that damaged the portal to begin with, the creature he works for. That would make Wiggly the current one in power and the one Webby has been warning us about,” he explained.

They hadn’t had a name for the thing before, so even if it was a silly name, at least it was something. “So the big bad being we’ve been preparing to engage with is named… Wiggly…”

“That appears to be the case,” John said.

“Great.”

“Great indeed.”

\---

Deb was not allowed to skip school like Alice’s dad was letting her do, so she had to go about class Friday or risk having the school call her parents about her absence. It was an awful day, but at least they’d gotten power back in the morning so she could charge her phone before going to school. She was tired, but she never went to bed before 1 am anyway, so it wasn’t really all that different.

School was as boring as ever when Alice wasn’t there, but she knew when she’d been invited over for dinner that night by Alice’s dad, and Deb would never turn down an offer like that. Deb thought Alice’s dad was a nerd, but that was okay. He was nice, and soft, and smiled a lot. On top of that, he truly loved his daughter and Deb knew he was really trying to connect with her as well.

Deb had always told herself she didn’t need her girlfriend’s parent’s approval. She had never gotten any parental approval in her life, if no girl she ever dated had parents who liked her, well, that was to be expected. Her own parents didn’t like her, how could someone else’s? Deborah was fine, just fine with being the rebel that nobody liked, if that was how the world saw her then that was how she would be.

Lex used to be like that too. They came from totally different backgrounds, but they’d reached the same life conclusions. Lex was different now though, since the whole ‘apocalypse’ thing, since she got adopted by Mr. Houston and had a dad who actually loved her. She was happier now. Sure, Lex was still as cool and confident as ever, but she wasn’t… scared anymore. She was happy, Deb thought, she felt safe at home and had support and she was happy.

Lucky bitch.

Deb thought that in the nicest way possible of course, Lex was one of her best friends! She was so happy that she’d managed to escape her mom and get Hannah somewhere safe so that she could be her own person and not just a mom. It was just that… well, Deb knew she was never going to be that lucky. Lex’s situation had been emergency level dangerous because Lex was providing for her and her sister and it was scary bad. Deb knew her situation was totally different.

She should be thankful, she should be happy. Deborah grew up in a lovely neighborhood with white picket fences and a father who was a doctor and a mother who was high up in the command of the business she worked at. They had plenty of money, she never went hungry, she was never cold, she was never left wanting anything but affection. And she could have it! She could have all the affection she wanted from her parents…

But only if she did exactly as they wished and never strayed from the path they had planned for her since they found out they were having a girl. They wanted an all ‘A’ student. They wanted her to be a perfect dancer, a perfect musician, to get into the honor society, to be on the swim team, to be on the student council and to be prom queen with her boyfriend beside her. They wanted her to go to college and study medicine, to become a doctor like her father and to marry a rich young man she met at school and to start a beautiful family of curly haired children for them to love.

Well… Well Deb was gay. First of all. Second? She was lucky to get ‘B’s in her classes, no matter how hard she studied, and she stayed up until dawn studying some days and then went straight back to school. She was fine at dance, really, but she hated the spotlight. Deb remembered when she was seven and froze center stage when she’d been highlighted in a recital. Neither of her parents spoke to her for a week after that. She was good at singing! She just… couldn’t stand the spotlight and sucked at playing anything but guitar or ukulele. There was no way in hell she was ever getting in the honor society or the student council, and she’d been… gently released from the swim team after having too many panic attacks in the bathroom before competitions. She wasn’t going to be prom queen, she wasn’t going to get into medical school, and she sure as hell was never giving birth.

Deb was an artist. She filled sketchbook after sketchbook after sketchbook with drawings of the world around her the way she saw it, colorful in ways others didn’t see. She painted both paintings and backdrops for the theater productions. She drew Alice, her smile, her kind eyes. Deb drew her how she saw her, as the prettiest thing she’d ever seen in her whole entire life. She wanted to go to art school, to learn how to do art more professionally, to make a living from the things she created because it was what filled her with life. 

That wasn’t good enough. That was never going to be good enough. Nothing Deb ever did was good enough. She was the screw up daughter they’d placed all their bets on and lost. She was broken, because why else would she say the stuff she thought or get good grades? Why else would she hide in her closet and hyperventilate until Alice could help her get her breathing under control? Why else was she... this? Why was she Deb? Why wasn’t she the perfect girl they wanted?

No one was going to save the girl that had everything. She didn’t need a rescue, not until her parents made good on their threat to kick her out anyway. Deb had begged her parents to take her to a doctor, to figure out what was wrong with her, but they refused, saying she was fine, because she was, obviously. She just wasn’t good enough. Maybe Deb had started smoking weed to cope with the anxiety of the pressure they put on her. Maybe she pushed adults away in fear they’d reject her. Maybe she was a mess that deserved what she got.

But Alice loved her. And if there was one thing, one good thing in this fucked up world it was Alice. If Alice loved her, then she had to be good enough, at least for her. She had to be enough, because Alice wouldn’t care about her if she wasn’t. Alice loved her, and through that Deb thought she might start loving herself too.

Alice didn’t remember much from what happened that day, when the world ended. She was insisting on being in front, just in case, like the stupid hero she was, and she was grabbed through the broken glass of the door’s window. That was it. Deb and Grace had tried to find an exit but by the time they’d realized they needed to get out, Alice was singing, and Deb, Deb couldn’t hurt her. Not Alice. So she and Grace died, because they couldn’t hurt Alice, and Alice could hurt them just fine.

Never again. Deb would never let that happen again. Nothing like it! If the apocalypse happened again, Deb was going to protect Alice, or die first before she could watch Alice die again, because she couldn’t do that again. She wanted to spend her life with that girl. They had plans! They were going to go to college together in the city! They were going to get an apartment and a cat and maybe even get married someday. They were going to be together. Deb couldn’t lose the love of her life again and yes, yes she knew she was only eighteen and had years ahead of her but that didn’t make what they had any less real.

Deb grabbed her messenger bag and threw it over her shoulder as she walked down the stairs. Just her luck, her parents were in the living room. She ducked her head in an attempt to go unnoticed, but she froze when her mother cleared her throat.

“Just where do you think you’re going?” she asked.

“Alice’s. I was invited over for dinner,” Deb muttered as she threw on her shoes.

“With the grade you brought home in physics? No ma’am. Between that and getting home so late-”

“The power went out, we thought it was another apocalypse!” Deb cut in.

“Another word from you and you’re grounded for two months rather than the one you are now,” her father hissed. “Car keys, give them over.”

Deb rolled her eyes and handed over the keys. “I’ll walk then.”

“What part of grounded don’t you understand?” he ordered. “Upstairs. Now!”

“Alice’s dad is starting to like me!” she protested. “He works for CCRP Technical in town. It would be good for mom’s business stuff if he likes the family.”

“What does he do there again?” she asked, totally not buying the story.

“I don’t know! Business stuff! You can’t keep me here! It’s against the law!” Deb cried.

“Upstairs. Now. And no dinner until you apologize for being so disrespectful to us both! You’re lucky we didn’t throw you out when we found out about Alice in the first place, you’re lucky you get to see her at all. Get back up those fucking stairs right now or I swear to God-”

Deb didn’t hear the rest of what her father said as she ran up the stairs and locked the door to her room behind her. She ran into her closet and closed the paneled doors behind her so she could sit in the quiet and the dark and call Alice. Breathing was hard, and she was trying very hard not to let the tears fall, but she made the call anyway, because Alice would help.

“Hey, are you on your way?” Alice asked.

“Dad took my keys,” she said quickly between breaths. “Grounded. Bad grade in physics.”

“Oh, well that’s okay, I can come pick you up around the block if you can sneak out,” Alice suggested.

Deb laughed and held the phone close to her ear. “Sounds great, Honey. I’ll see you in ten?”

“See you in ten,” Alice agreed, hanging up the phone.

\---

Hannah had never been to Pizza Pete’s before the Apotheosis. Lex and Ethan had been so busy saving up while keeping her fed that the extra cash that Pizza Pete’s required, for the games, was out of the budget. She had always been fine with it! It wasn’t like she was missing much. But now? Now that it was back open, and they were there celebrating her birthday?

It seemed like quite the big deal.

Before, Lex and Ethan had always done what they could in terms of celebrating her birthday, but they’d never had much to give. Now there was a whole cake, and a pile of presents and people who were her family now all over the place! She’d never had this much family before! Tom and Tim were sitting with her at the table as the two younger ones continued eating while Ethan and Lex were playing some game against each other.

Her gaze was drawn to the adults talking down the table from them. Mr. Ted and Ms. Charlotte, along with Becky, Emma, and Paul were having a talk about grownup things, she assumed, but that wasn’t what caught her attention. Hannah couldn’t help but smile at them before looking back down at her pizza. She always knew things people didn’t, and she couldn’t always tell them, even if she wanted to, but sometimes that secret was a good one. This was not a secret she would spoil, not even when Tom asked her.

“What’s got you all smiley?” Tom asked, looking at her and then in the direction of the other three.

Hannah just laughed. He would know eventually. It was going to be a fun secret, a happy secret. Sometimes secrets were better left unsaid, so that when they came out it was even happier, like when Ethan told her he was going to apply to the same college as Lex so he could work for PEIP one day too, but told her not to tell so that when he got accepted he could surprise everyone. Hannah didn’t want to spoil for him that he was going to get accepted either, the nerves made the reward even better.

“I think it’s song time, what do you think?” Tom asked. When Hannah nodded he called over the rest of the family for the birthday song.

They all stood around the table and began to sing, much to Hannah’s amusement. They weren’t very good singers, but there was a warm feeling inside her that she couldn’t ignore. Love. She felt loved. She’d known these grownups less than a year but they loved her, most of them anyway. The rest were still there in celebration for her, and to be a part of the family they had all built together. It was messy and had mismatched parts, but it was good. It was still good.

Danger was ahead, she could see it coming, but they would be alright. They came together this time, they had each other this time. They would be okay. As long as they relied on each other, no monster or apocalypse could win. They would be happy. The world would be safe. Everything would work out, as long as they came together like this.

The song ended and she blew out her candles while the others cheered. Cake was served and presents were opened. It was happy. Hannah was happy. Bad things were coming, dangerous things. They were in the air even now as they laughed and played. But Hannah knew her family was stronger than any evil in the universe. They would be allowed to be happy, even if she had to make reality agree with her to get that fairy-tale ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hannah knows who is pregnant. Hannah knows all.


	8. Align Your Soul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lex and John talk for an hour about exposition. Becky contemplates her relationship with Tom and wonders about what future it could have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last big exposition chapter necessary as far as I can see at the moment. It should clear all the confusion created by Hidgens. Why did I not keep this a mystery longer? Because Lex would ask John, and John figured it out already, so why wouldn't he tell? 
> 
> There are mentions of past abuse in the scene with Becky, as a warning. For the most part she's just sad about Tom.

The only good thing about Mondays was that it meant it was a day Lex had training with General McNamera. For all her complaining, she did truly enjoy the two hours she would spend with him in his office every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, should schedules allow. Occasionally, like the week prior, the Wednesday meeting had to happen on Thursday due to some meeting he’d had to go to, and then Friday she didn’t have a lesson with him because he was recovering in the hospital.

She liked John, honestly. They had a different relationship than she had with Tom, he was more of a mentor, focused on teaching her things and helping her reach her potential rather than focused on being her dad. He was cool though, and always treated her like she was any other adult, with respect and dignity rather than treating her like the moody teen she often was. John listened to her points and when she was wrong he’d explain why without making her feel stupid. The lessons were some of her favorite times during the week because she truly felt like someone special, someone who could change the world when John talked to her.

Lex had been worried about him of course. She’d heard from Becky that he was alright, that both of them were sent home Sunday night and that they were doing relatively fine, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t allowed to be concerned. John had explained early on how dangerous the portal was, and why they had it in the first place. With as many dark forces inside it as there were, they needed a way in, to fight them when need be. That time hadn’t come yet, but they both knew it would come eventually.

“You are two minutes late,” John said as she entered the room.

Lex rolled her eyes and closed the door behind her. “I got stopped in the hall by Code who kept talking about slime shit, I don’t know,” she explained, plopping herself down in her usual chair and throwing her backpack into the other.

John nodded in understanding and put out his cigarette. He looked… red. It wasn’t quite a sunburn, but it wasn’t quite a scrape either. It was like some layers of skin had been removed and his body wasn’t happy about it, which was… accurate. John still had bandages on his arms, likely in order to protect them from his day to day business where sleeves would rub and cause irritation. His hair was pulled back, likely for the same reason.

“Dude, at least the Black and White didn’t ruin your hair,” she said, breaking the momentary silence as he allowed her to check him over for his injuries.

“Yes, I was only in there for about thirty seconds. Some of my hair did disintegrate but it is difficult to tell. I was quite lucky I could get out of there as quickly as I did,” John agreed, taking his hair down to show where it was oddly shortened in places.

“You wanna tell me what happened? ‘Cause I heard from Tom and Becky but that’s not the same, I want actual answers,” Lex said, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees.

John nodded as he pulled his hair back up into its ponytail. “At 8:08 pm there was a massive surge of power from the other side of the portal, creating a major electrical short out in PEIP’s mainframe and then the rest of town. This was orchestrated by the being we now know is named Wiggly, the current ruler of the Black and White, in order to disrupt the working of the portal and coax me to enter in order to retrieve a soul from the Black and White.”

“Did they know Xander would be touching the equipment?” Lex asked.

“It is likely. They have been watching us. They knew due to past experience that Xander was the best theoretical physicist in the world when it comes to the Black and White, and that if anyone was going to be trying to fix the portal it would be him. They also knew that if Xander was shocked enough to kill him, I would venture into the Black and White to bring him back. Doing so allowed other spirits from the Black and White to come out alongside us, and because they do not have proper bodies to return to, they are left as forms of energy in our plane of existence for the time being,” John explained.

“Hidgens said they’d- do you know Dr. Hidgens?” Lex asked.

“I do. We have asked for his assistance in the past,” John said with a nod.

Lex nodded as well. “Well, interesting stuff came out Friday morning. Turns out he’s got a connection to the Black and White and can hear Webby, and gets like, half answers from her or something. He said stuff about the Heart and Guardians and the Soul, but he didn’t make much sense.”

John leaned forward, his eyes widening with focus as she mentioned those terms. “Did he say who any of them were?”

“He said Emma Perkins is the Heart, and that Paul Matthews is her Guardian as far as he could tell, but he didn’t know any of the other roles. He did say that Tom was probably a Warrior, and that a Warrior was basically a Guardian but for reality rather than one person?” Lex explained before shrugging. “He didn’t really explain what the Soul was though, so I have no idea on that one.”

John sat back silently for a moment, taking in the information as he stared into the distance. “I knew Paul was connected to this the moment I met him. I told him of the importance of love and the strength of the human heart because Guardians and Warriors are inherently deeply connected to love and the ties that bind one heart to another. He did not react. He did, however, insist on bringing one Emma Perkins on the evac helicopter with him, and I knew she had to be the one he was protecting.”

“So she is the Heart?” Lex asked.

John nodded. “If Tom had not rescued her, none of us would have been saved from the Apotheosis and the world would have ended. Her ties to her family are what brought us all back from the dead, Lex, because she believed that it would work, because they believed it would work. Her need to heal here gave Tom the opportunity to bring hope to Ms. Barnes and then to Schaeffer and Xander. Without Xander, we would have lost. Without Schaeffer, we would have lost. They gained strength from Tom, and Tom gained strength from Emma, because they are tied together through love of family.”

“So… Emma saved the day by helping make people believe they could save the day?” Lex asked.

“Precisely, Lex. The Heart’s influence on reality often works like that. Occasionally it is more direct, such as when she told Paul to destroy the meteor, but influence over reality can be subtle as well as obvious. She wanted, truly wanted, the cure to succeed so that she could have Paul back, and so it did,” John said, leaning forward once more.

Lex thought about what the professor had spoken about, then looked up at McNamara. He was waiting for her to ask him something, he had that slight bit of a smile as he expected her next question to come. “So what is the Soul?”

John smiled slightly more, seeming to be proud of her thought process. “The Soul is responsible for keeping reality on path however it is deemed necessary. It is the only role, aside from Warrior, that can be held by more than one person, and even then it can only ever be held by two, the duties of the role split evenly between them. The soul is the embodiment of good and righteousness in our reality, what is morally right. They must keep reality in the realm of light, prevent the Heart from falling to darkness.

“One half of the responsibility is to see the potential futures that actions can bring, and to guide those around them onto the correct path forward for the best possible outcome. The other half is to administrate what is good and right in reality by altering things where need be and stopping threats where they can. One is the guide, the other is the enforcer. Together the Soul keeps reality on track and protects the fabric of the universe in ways no one else will ever understand.”

She thought about that information, and looked back up at him. He was expecting her to come to a conclusion, she could tell from his expression that he had given her all the information she needed to figure out who the Soul was. “It’s Hannah, isn’t it? Am I her Guardian then?”

John sighed and leaned back, remaining silent for a moment as he thought about how best to explain. “Lex, if I were to tell you that Xander and I were going to suddenly die tonight as a result of the ghosts, what would you do?”

“I’d go over to your house and make a salt ring around the living room so they can’t get in?” she said, confused.

“Why?”

“Because you can’t die yet, it isn’t right,” Lex said.

“Why the salt?”

“Because that keeps ghosts out?”

“And how did you know that? I never told you that.”

Lex paused. “Somebody did.”

“Who, Lex? How did you know that the living room was the best place to do it?” John insisted.

She thought hard about it, unable to come to a good conclusion. Lex was sure someone had said it, the professor maybe? Hannah? She just couldn’t remember anyone actually saying it. “The living room is on the first floor, it’s where a lot of positive memories are, so it’s the best place to put the circle, so it can be strengthened by those memories…”

“By the ties that bind,” John agreed. “You have a power, Lex, the power to interact with the Black and White in ways that, with enough training, will allow you to alter the fabric of reality itself, in positive ways.”

“I’m the Soul?” she asked, looking down at her hands with confusion.

“You are half of the Soul. This happens occasionally, when the universe chooses someone particularly young to fill the role. When it does, the half that guides is called the Soul and the half that enforces is called the Spirit. It’s the same role shared by two people, the names are just to specify which is being spoken about. You are the enforcer, you have the power to keep reality on track however necessary. Your sister is the guide. She can see the potential futures and has already tried her best to do her job. Her age makes it difficult, but she freed Paul. She saved us all. While you were gone she had all the duties of the Soul, and she did wonderfully,” John agreed.

Lex thought about what that could mean. It was insane to think she and her sister were as important as John was saying they were. Why them? Why had they been chosen? She wasn’t surprised in the least that Hannah was the Soul, but her? Alexandra Foster-Houston? Well, if John said she had a job, she had a job. “What about our Guardian?”

“In these cases, the Soul still only has one Guardian despite being in two. Who do you think that is for you two?” John asked.

“Ethan. It has to be Ethan, right? Someone around our age who works to protect us? I mean, we’re way older than Hannah but if it’s going off of me, then it’s definitely Ethan,” Lex said firmly.

John nodded in agreement. “Tom is a Warrior of Light guided by the universe to watch over Hannah while you two are away. This is not uncommon. He is not specifically her Guardian, he protects both of you, and works to protect the universe as a whole without realizing it, but he is there to help.”

“Hannah is a better person than I will ever be,” Lex muttered.

“Because you can make the tough decisions, you are the enforcer, that is your duty. Do not doubt yourself because of this. What is good is not always what is legal. You are righteous and you are good, Lex Houston. Do not doubt yourself. She must be protected because she is a child who has been chosen to do great things, and you have a job to do,” John assured.

“When did we get these jobs? Did you know the last Soul?” Lex asked.

The man sighed and looked down. “His name was Lieutenant Andrew Carmichael, and he was a good man. He died in a car accident around Christmas eve almost two years ago.”

Lex froze, eyes wide. There was no way, was there? “Seriously?” she asked, wondering if he understood the significance.

“Seriously. The last I heard from him was that the Heart had to die to protect the future, and he was gone the next day,” John explained quietly.

“The universe really did kill Jane,” Lex muttered, sitting back in her chair. “That’s my job, right? As the enforcer I’m the one who would do that kinda thing, sacrifice myself and all that?”

John nodded solemnly. “It is more likely to be you than Hannah. I believe Hannah was chosen at birth to be Webby’s prophet on Earth during this period of turmoil. She must be protected at all costs until her time comes.”

“So I’m gonna die young?” Lex asked.

“Not necessarily. You two can evenly share the role until you both die of old age, or she could die before you. You have the responsibility to live, and to protect our reality, keep us on the path of light. This is why I want you to fill my position one day. Not every Soul has the strength to lead, but you do. I believe you can become an even better commander of PEIP than I will ever be, because of who you are, not the role you have. The universe could always choose to give it solely to Hannah once she is old enough as well, we don’t entirely know how it all works. What is important, Lex, is that you give everything your all and follow your gut, because you are destined for greatness,” John stated firmly.

It was so weird to have someone believe in her so much, but she nodded anyway. Lex explained the rest of what the professor had said about the ghosts, and they continued their lesson as usual. She had a lot to think about, and a lot to tell Tom, but she had a feeling everything was going to work out. John believed in her and she believed in herself. That was enough.

\---

Becky liked her house. It was one of the one bedroom townhouses they had on the base, and the area was all her own in ways her home with Stanley wasn’t. She got to choose her furniture, design it how she wanted. The home was cozy and small, and she loved going there every night, even when there was cleaning to do or dishes in the sink. No one was there to yell at her, or hit her, she was safe, and she was happy.

She had, however, been spending more and more time over at the Houston residence a block or so away on the line of townhouses that were larger. When she wasn’t working, Becky was happy to go over and help watch the kids, or make dinner or help with homework. She’d always wanted kids of her own, but… Stanley wasn’t the father she’d wanted for them, and after his death she hadn’t been with anyone else. If she and Tom never started dating officially, and she just got to help him raise his children, that would be enough.

That’s what she told herself anyway.

She knew he was hurting, she never wanted to rush him, she was hurt too after all and right then wasn’t a good time for them to make their relationship official. Becky was terrified of Stanley appearing to her, or seeing her with Tom and terrorizing his family because of it. But, this game they had been playing was tough on her. She loved Tom, she always had and she always would. That was a fact of life.

It was hard to be so close to him yet so distant. It was hard to keep waiting when she didn’t know if he would ever be ready. That wasn’t his fault, she wasn’t upset with him about it. His pain and grief was valid and if he never felt he was ready to move on, she would accept that. But he would hold her hand, and he invited her to every family event. He’d include her as part of the family unit in conversations but never as his partner. That was what hurt. They’d kissed, after the younger two were in bed and Lex was in her room, they’d gotten quite… intimate. But nothing had come from it, nothing had changed.

If he didn’t make her feel like part of the family, she wouldn’t feel the obligation to wait for him, to feel like she was waiting for him to be ready so they could actually be a family. Because they weren’t! Or, they were, but she wasn’t a part of it, not really. She was an old friend and an old flame who he acted like he was in a relationship with without actually being in a relationship with her. They were a family, she was present.

They had lost their spouses in very different situations. He had every right to grieve, he had every right to never move on and to decide never to date again. But every time she settled into the new normal between them, he would hint that he wanted more, and she would spiral yet again wondering what it meant. It killed her little by little that they were just friends while she was just an innate part of his family’s life while he acted like he wanted to kiss her every time they were alone.

Becky knew he didn’t mean to toy with her heart the way he was, she knew he was sweet and loving and kind, a good father and a good partner. If she said how she felt he would feel terrible about it and be upset with himself for putting her through this constant back and forth. He was dealing with enough at the moment, however, and she couldn’t add onto his struggles. Jane was returned from the grave, seeking him out every night for the briefest of moments according to him. It was the worst possible time for her to bring the situation up to him. So she wouldn’t. She was waiting for her own ghosts to come back to haunt her anyway, it wasn’t a good time for either of them.

“Becky!” a voice called from the living room.

She was filled with dread at the sound. That was Stanley. She knew that shout. It was the ‘you haven’t brought me my beer fast enough’ shout. Perhaps if she ignored him, he’d go away! He couldn’t hurt her anyway, it was only the seventh. There was still plenty of time. No, this was the worst possible point in their relationship to bring this up. Stanley was there, Stanley would kill her.

“REBECCA!” he shouted, suddenly directly behind her where she stood in the kitchen.

Becky gasped and jumped, frozen in place as she prepared for an attack that never came. Slowly she turned around and saw him, his transparent dead eyes glaring down into hers before suddenly flickering out of existence. She broke into a relieved sob and quickly grabbed her phone.

“Tom!” she cried as the man picked up.

“I’m on my way,” he said just as quickly, “stay on the line, okay? I’m not going anywhere.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What does intimate mean in this context? Who knows! I want you all to know that I am leaning into the mystery of who is pregnant since you all seem so stressed about it lol, why not have a fun little mystery while ghosts torment the poor characters of the story? In addition, if I hadn't rewritten the conversation between her and Tom in chapter 6 this scene would not have happened.
> 
> Also if I've used the name Andrew Carmichael before I'm sorry, I have an ADHD brain and that was just the right name to use.


	9. Tom is Seeing Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Becky comes to Xander with a question. The Teen Quartet spend time in the library being way too loud. Emma and Paul have dinner and love each other. Tom talks to the ghost of his wife.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Scene one mentions abuse, scene three mentions sex, scene four is sad.
> 
> I am very tired while writing the chapter so if it sounds like I am tired, I am. Also! If you would like to take part in the survey of name options for the future baby, here it is!  
> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdZPkietkQN9DhbM82v3Di1DchzohK7iVnKyVazyCYJCiQItA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Xander loved his office. It was in itself a laboratory for various things with equipment he could use to test hypotheses and bookshelves on the walls full of physics. There were two tables on the ‘office’ side of things, each with a computer on it, and beside his desk was a large chalkboard. The other desk was John’s, used when they did not want to spend much time apart, or after missions before John passed out in his chair in the room. 

The office was located in the research building rather than the headquarters building where John’s office was, as John had to oversee the base and the military side of things while Xander’s domain was the science realm. He often got visitors from scientists who wanted to run a theory by him, or had general work that needed to be done, though his most common visitor was John. Visitors were wonderful, they spiced things up and often provided new information for whatever situation they were in.

When he received a knock on the door, he expected it to be Dr. Volkov from the parabiology department with his analysis of the ectoplasm that had been discovered around the base in places ghosts had been spotted. It was not the mousy man he was assuming would come through the door, instead, it was one Becky Barnes. Not a bad surprise! He and John both liked the woman as she was the only one who knew how to put up with the two of them when they were in the hospital. He just was not expecting her to appear in his office. She had never been there before in her years of work for PEIP, so, Xander was understandably confused.

“Can I help you Ms. Barnes?” he asked, sitting aside the paperwork he’d been working on and turning to face her.

“Stanley appeared in my house last night. I thought I-... well, I don’t know anyone else in this building really, I don’t know who is working the issue, I thought I’d come to you,” Becky explained.

Xander took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. He had been expecting this conversation to eventually happen, even before the ghosts. It was understandable that she would eventually seek out whoever covered up the mess with her husband, and that she’d come to him for the information, since the whole thing was in his division. “Okay, what happened?”

“He called my name from the living room, then he appeared behind me and- Xander, he had a gunshot wound in his head,” she said, whispering the last part.

Ah. Right. That. “The ghosts look as they did when they died.”

“I didn’t shoot him in the head, I sliced an artery,” Becky said, almost sounding panicked.

Wrong approach wrong approach try a new tactic. “According to official record, there was a parasite in the woods at the time of the event that climbed into deceased bodies and PEIP was forced to shoot the body of an unidentified man in the woods in the head then burn his body to prevent it from spreading.”

Becky paused, then sat down at one of the empty chairs in the room. “But that’s… that’s not what happened, is it? If he was dead already the headshot wouldn’t have appeared, right?”

“At 10 pm on July 10th, 2017, you called the PEIP staff hotline and said that you and your spouse got into an argument that turned violent, and that he was abusive, and that the only way you survived the night was by cutting his femoral artery and leaving him in the woods,” Xander stated, pressing his hands together in front of him,

“Yes…”

“The only person still working in the division of the hotline you called that night was me,” Xander continued. Becky was silent as she took in the information. “I quickly read your file. We had records of what he did to you. There wasn’t anything we could do without you reaching out, but we had the records for when you did. I didn’t know until that night what happened in your house, but you called the hotline, so I was going to fix your problem.

“It wasn’t hard to find him. He had been trying to crawl back into the house. You had already left back to the base where I told you to go, so you didn’t hear the shot. You missed. You were close, but just slightly to the left. He was bleeding out, but I made him go away. Then I had the body incinerated in order to hide the event from the public, and proceeded to destroy or have someone else destroy every legal trace of that bastard’s existence so you wouldn’t have to face any potential legal trouble in the future.”

“So I didn’t kill him?” she asked quietly.

“Well, if I hadn’t stepped in, he would have bled out in the woods anyway. You called me though, and I fixed the problem. That’s what I do,” Xander stated. “His ghost likely still blames you for what happened. He wasn’t conscious when I shot him, he likely doesn’t know I did it but on your conscience and your soul, you don’t have to blame yourself for that night. He deserved what he got, and he deserves to be forgotten by the world with no trace he ever existed.”

Becky was silent, tears in her eyes, before smiling up at him. “Thank you. I… I would have been fine if I’d done it, but…”

“But there’s some lines you don’t want to cross. If need be, you can and you would, but you were never alone in your fight with your abuser. You always had people ready by the sidelines when you needed us,” Xander agreed.

She nodded and left the room soon after. The parasite thing hadn’t actually been a cover up, it had indeed happened, but Stanley was alive when Xander shot him in the head. Xander had lines, lines that when crossed he would step in. Abuse wasn’t acceptable in any situation, and people who thought it was alright deserved to see the end of Xander’s gun.

\---

“School suuuucks, Babe,” Ethan whined, placed the open book on top of his head.

“Volume, babe, it’s the library,” Lex said, sneaking a chip into her mouth.

“We already learned this stuff, or, we didn’t actually learn anything but we pretended to, and we have to do it again,” he complained.

“Well we actually have to learn this time, we have no excuse this time,” Lex said, pulling the book off of his head. “Did you bring your page filters so it’s easier to read?”

“I forgot ‘em at home,” Ethan sighed, laying his head on his hands on top of the table.

“There’s your problem,” she teased, gently shoving his shoulder.

“Hello, boring people!” Deb called, far too loudly as she and Alice entered the library and sat down at the table with Ethan and Lex.

Alice laughed and shushed her girlfriend as they sat down across from the other two. “How have you two been since the faire?”

“Eh, my dad’s dead wife’s been whispering around the house at night and his… Becky stayed over last night, so that’s fun. Where have you been?” Lex asked with a shrug.

“Dad had bad anxiety on Friday so we stayed home, and I had the family therapy thing Monday at THE most inconvenient time for all of us so none of us wanted to be there,” Alice sighed.

“I spent the weekend smoking weed out my bedroom window and studying stuff I’m never gonna understand,” Deb stated, slamming her books onto the table.

Ethan laughed. “Mood. Did you work on the paper due on Wednesday for Hawthorne?”

Deb slammed her own head into the books. “I forgot about the paper.”

“Yikesss,” Lex said, “yeah that sucks, you can do it though.”

“It’ll be okay! You still have tonight to write it,” Alice assured, squeezing Deb’s arm softly to comfort her.

“I’ve got shit tonight,” Deb groaned.

Lex slapped the table. “Party Friday Night by the lake, right? Fuck the ghosts, fuck the school, let’s be reckless teenagers in a horror movie.”

The others laughed because, well, that was fair enough. They knew the ghosts couldn’t hurt them presently, but doing what they were planning was exactly what people in horror movies did. Was it a good idea? Probably not? Did they care? No!

“No alcohol though, okay? Just in case,” Alice insisted.

“No alcohol,” Deb said. “Maybe weed.”

“Maybe weed,” Alice agreed.

\---

Paul liked how things were, how it was to be domestic. He got up in the morning and made them coffee, and Emma grabbed them breakfast before dropping him off at work before heading to class then her own job. Then he’d work through the day, have lunch, and get a ride home from Bill, who lived in the same neighborhood as they did. When he got home, he would settle in and then start dinner. Emma would get home and make them drinks, and they would enjoy eating together before cuddling up to watch a movie or two and then go to bed. It was wonderful!

“Hey, how was work?” Paul asked, stirring the stew he was making.

Emma groaned and sat her bag down on its usual chair, throwing her coat on top of it. “I am never going to get this shit off of my hands.”

“What shit?”

“Ectoplasm, but like, not what normal biology calls ectoplasm, I mean _ghost_ ectoplasm. If I’d known parabiology was literally just all weird sticky not-liquid substances, I might not have changed my mind about the pot farm,” she explained.

Paul looked at her with raised eyebrows. “Like, real ghost ectoplasm?”

“Yeah, and it is way stickier than it is in the movies,” Emma said, putting a hand on his face so he could feel it.

As she removed her hand, he could feel the weirdly sticky residue left on his face, causing him to groan and try to rub it off, only to spread it to his hand. “Great. You cursed me.”

“Right?” she said as she attempted to wash her hands with dish soap. “It’s the worst! And it’s all my lab’s working on right now because apparently ectoplasm is rare. Well it isn’t rare right now! I spent my entire time at work today scraping it off things around the portal room on the base and putting it into containers. I had like, fifty containers at the end, and there’s still more!”

“At my job today, Ted printed out twenty copies of a fake ghostbuster advertisement and hung them up around the office,” Paul said, continuing to stir the food.

Emma snorted. “How’d that go over with the boss? Also the dish soap works on getting the shit off,” she said as she dried her hands off.

“Mr. Davidson thought it was a Halloween prank and wouldn’t stop singing the Ghostbusters theme song,” Paul said. 

She laughed and said, “That must have killed you.”

“I managed to hold it together purely because Ted was also dying. At one point he was bashing his head against his desk,” Paul said with a laugh.

“Oh Charlotte will enjoy dealing with that tonight,” Emma said.

“She said that Ted deserved what he got. Can you get out the bowls?” he said.

“The bear ones or the soup ones?” she asked.

“Hmm… Stew is like soup, so the soup ones,” Paul said.

Emma got out the bowls and grabbed silverware for them as Paul placed the pot in the pot holder on the table. They sat down in their usual seat, and filled their bowls. Paul still had the hand print sensation on his face, but Emma was sitting across from him and smiling at him, so he wasn’t in a rush to wash his face with dish soap.

“It’s good,” Emma said, smiling wider at him.

“Thanks,” he said, feeling his ears wiggle at the compliment as he smiled back at her.

They fell silent for another moment as they ate before Emma sat down her spoon and said, “Do you want to have sex tonight?”

Paul’s brain short circuited at the suddenness of the question. “I’m sorry?” It wasn't that they had never done anything like that before, but he never got used to it. How could he? Emma was a beautiful and wonderful and amazing, how could he be used to her asking him about that sort of thing?

“Do you wanna have sex?” she asked. “We haven’t for like a week.”

“Okay,” he replied before nodded, “I- yeah we can have sex we can do that.”

“Cool,” Emma said, returning to her food.

\---

Tom sat in the living room, strumming on his guitar quietly as he watched the sun outside. Tim and Hannah were playing in the office, and Lex was working on homework upstairs, so he had some time to himself. He hummed quietly to himself as he played, not loud enough to disrupt the children. Tom knew what he was thinking doing was probably not a good idea, but he had to do it, he had to try.

“Do you remember when we bought this thing?” he asked quietly, not looking up. Tom didn’t know if Jane was there or not, and he didn’t want to be talking to an empty room. “It was the first thing we bought together.”

Silence met him, but he didn’t look up. Tim had never been interested in the guitar, but it had always been their dream to teach their son how to play. Music had been a tie between him and Jane, they would play together and sing. Sharing music and the guitar with Tim had been a goal of theirs since Jane became pregnant. And Tim did love music, just like his parents, but he had never been interested in playing guitar.

“We always wanted to teach Tim how to play, didn’t we? That plan got pushed back a bit,” he said with a laugh. “There was this whole thing a while back where people got infected with this evil zombie plague that made people sing. It turned us all off music for a while.”

There was still silence, but he could feel her there. Tom could tell she was there without looking up or without her speaking because he could still feel the connection. Was it because he had been her Guardian? Was it because he just truly loved her? He supposed there wasn’t really a difference, if Henry was to be believed. No matter what, Tom could feel her there.

“It’s how I got two extra kids,” he said, smiling. “Lex got sick, but she got better. Hannah’s a bit younger than Tim, she just turned ten. Our boy’s ten now! He’s gotten so big, it’s getting hard to pick him up. He’s so brave, Jane, so strong. I can’t believe how well he’s done since you… since that night.”

He needed Jane to understand how much Tim had grown since that night. Tim wasn’t the same little boy he had been. He took his role as big brother so seriously, watching over Hannah despite them only being a few months apart. Tim was strong, he was stronger than Tom, certainly. He was handling the situation so well, just like he’d handled the Apotheosis. Tom was incredibly proud of how great of a kid Tim had become.

“Lex is a rebel spirit, strong willed kid who fiercely cares so much about her sister, and Tim. Hannah is a sweetheart who is much sneakier than she seems. She and Tim get into mischief all the time, you should see it,” he said warmly.

Tom knew this would all end. Jane was going to disappear never to return at the end of the month, and he wanted to tell her things before he lost her once more. He knew, realistically, that this version of Jane wasn’t the one he was used to, but it was something. It was Jane. Some part of him knew that this was basically the same as talking to a tombstone, but her spirit was there for now, really there.

John and Xander had sent out warning memos to the employees of PEIP that ghosts were not to be trusted, not to be believed. They said that the spirits were twisted, though the extent of that was not known at the time. Jane was fine. Jane was Jane. They couldn’t twist Jane, they couldn’t harm her, couldn’t make her something to fear. Jane had been the Heart, wasn’t she? Yes, he knew it wasn’t impossible for the evil things to taint the Heart, but… it was Jane. Nothing could make her evil, nothing could make her harm him or their family. That wasn’t how Jane worked, she was good, truly good.

“Tommy…” he heard Jane whisper.

Tom smiled sadly and looked up, seeing her twisted body by the window. “Hey, Jane.”

Jane flickered, appearing closer to him with each flicker. She stopped directly in front of him and reached as if to touch him, but hesitated. Her eyes… weren’t right. They were dead, and they were… angry, cold. That wasn’t Jane. There was a strange green tint to them as well. Jane’s eyes weren’t green. She suddenly reached as if to grab his face, causing him to close his eyes on instinct. Nothing happened though, besides the sudden feeling of a strange, sticky substance on his cheeks and neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because of the differences between this reality and other realities, that is why Xander killed Stanley. This is no surprise, Xander is a field agent trained in how to kill monsters, Stanley was no difference. The parasite thing was also happening that night but was entirely unrelated to the situation.
> 
> There aren't going to be much more references to sex because eh, why. There will be occasionally, but I mostly wanted to tease you all that any of the major adults couples could be pregnant. Also Paul is very awkward.
> 
> Tom is just... sad.


	10. Only Ghosts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim has a lot of thoughts, having his first POV scene in either story, and also wants to be a good big brother while telling his mother's spirit to fuck off. Ted and Charlotte are trying their best to protect themselves from Sam, but there is little they can do. Emma has an unexpected visitor and Paul, while being a noodle, scares her away. Lex screams at, then throws salt at a lake; it actually goes well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After the last chapter name this chapter had to be named 'Only Ghosts' and be entirely about the ghosts, so here it is! The ghosts are gaining in strength, much to the concern of everyone. PEIP has sent out information to the citizens of the town for how to protect themselves, which has detailed instructions. One instruction says 'religious relics' which means holy symbols from your religion of choice. Ted and Charlotte both happen to be protestant (though of different denominations) and decide to fill their apartment with crosses.
> 
> Warnings! First chapter talks about Jane's death from Tim's perspective, nothing particularly detailed but it is sad. Lex's mother is described as being torn apart by the infected, not in detail, you can picture it as you wish.
> 
> Here is the baby name survey once more! They won't know they're pregnant for another few weeks, this is mostly to see you all's opinion on the matter! https://forms.gle/jzZQjhagmY9VJ4TY8

Tim considered himself to be a pretty lucky kid, all things considered. He survived the Apotheosis, got two sisters who were superheroes (they had powers and everything!), moved into a new house on a ‘secret base', and his dad wasn’t so sad anymore. Sure, his dad was busy a lot, and there were more people who needed his attention than there had been before, but his dad was way more present than he had been before the Apotheosis.

The accident was terrifying and hard to swallow. He remembered the way his mother wheezed as she tried to breathe before even that faded away. Tim remembered the lights and the sirens and the blood. Cars still scared him, so did ice, and part of him didn’t trust his dad behind the wheel. A car accident was what led him to get his new sisters though, and to all the good things that had happened since, so his dad was still allowed to drive in Tim’s opinion.

After that night, his father hadn’t really… been there. Not really. He was empty, like a husk or something. His dad wasn’t really there when he needed him because he was so sad about his mom’s death. Even when some of the emptiness went away, his dad was distant, not cold but… touchy, almost nervous. If Tim asked for something he would do it, unless he wasn’t paying attention because he was in his head too deep. Neither of those were great. They weren’t what Tim wanted or needed, he just needed his dad to be there for him.

Then the Apotheosis thing happened and it was like his dad came back to life. Between getting a new job and deciding that Hannah needed a dad, it was like he’d found a new purpose in life. It was exciting! His dad was scolding him like he used to, and smiling when he did something funny. He was working towards a goal, and in doing so it gave Tim something to look forward to in life. It was a fresh start, a happy new day for the two of them, and all the new family members got to come along with them.

Tim didn’t blame his dad for the accident, not really. He knew the other car had slipped on the icy road, it wasn’t his dad’s fault it slid into the intersection. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t notice it in time to stop before they crashed. It was as it was named, an accident. Tim was a smart enough kid to know his dad still blamed himself for it though. It had only made the flashbacks worse because now he had new things to see and didn’t have his mom to talk him through it. Tim tried! He loved his dad, of course he tried, but he knew his dad didn’t want Tim to see him like that.

In all, he didn’t blame his dad for the accident, or how he grieved after. That stuff was just how things happened sometimes. It was sad, but you take the sad, you appreciate the happy that it reminds you of, and then you let it go. His dad wasn’t too good at the letting go side of things. He couldn’t let go of his mom. Tim had, a long time ago. He said his goodbyes to her picture and decided to move forward. That was hard! He still missed her every single day, and he thought he always would, but he allowed himself to move on from the accident and her death so he could look to the future.

His dad was not good at looking to the future. Tim understood, to a degree, how hard it had to be for him, but it was getting a bit frustrating honestly. He wanted his dad to be happy, and he wanted him to allow himself to move on. Miss Becky was right there, and they clearly liked each other! She’d even slept over a few times! Tim didn’t know much about girls aside from what he was learning about his sisters, but he did know Becky was his dad’s old friend and that his dad thought she was pretty and that his mom was dead. Sometimes, especially right now, it seemed like his dad wasn’t so sure about that.

The whole ghost thing was annoying. At first it started with whispers and occasionally seeing flickers of his mom at night, but over the last week cold spots had started to form in places and goo stuff showed up around the house on walls and old stuff of his mom’s. Currently, his curtain was blowing despite the window being closed, and his model airplane was flying in circles around the ceiling. The room was colder than it should be, and he could see a shadow in the corner, with whispers coming from it.

Tim just rolled his eyes. “This isn’t a horror movie. I’m trying to go to bed. Go make Dad cry if you want to bother someone but I’m trying to sleep! You’re a ghost. I let you go! Let me go, and let me go to sleep!”

As if a switch was flipped, everything stopped. The curtain fell back down, the plane stopped spinning, the room warmed and the shadow vanished. Typical ghosts. He assumed the shadow would have looked like his mother’s body that night, if he’d cared to look hard enough, but he didn’t need to. It wasn’t really his mom. His mom died almost two years ago. Ghosts were just annoying.

Still, he crept out of his room to check on Hannah and make sure she was okay. She had not been handling the haunting well, seeming to be aware of the spirit even during the day, and Tim didn’t want her to be scared because Lex was out with friends and their dad was downstairs with Becky. Hannah was sitting, knees to her chest, on her bed with her hair down and tear tracks on her face.

“Hey, it’s okay, she went away for now,” he said, closing the door behind him. “Do you want me to hang out in here with you until Lexie gets back from the lake?” 

Hannah nodded, so Tim flopped on the bed with her and began to talk about random stuff, like how cars worked, and how cool space was. She liked it when he talked to her like that, so she didn’t have to, and if it made her feel safer, he was totally gonna do it. Hannah was a superhero, but he was her big brother, and that made him _her_ hero. Of course he was going to do what it took to make her happy!

\---

“Char, honey, I don’t think we need to hang a cross on every door of the apartment,” Ted sighed. “Dude can float through walls, I don’t think protecting the doorways is gonna fix the problem.”

“Are you a ghost expert?” Charlotte asked.

God, why did she have to have such a cute fucking voice, he couldn’t say no to that. “No, but we don’t have one to put on the ceiling, it’s too big, and gravity is a bitch.”

Charlotte thought about the problem for a moment before nodding. “We could always use paint. Nothing too dark, so we can paint back over it when we have to move some day!”

“Honey, I am not painting crosses all over the ceiling. It wouldn’t be a religious relic like the list they sent out suggests, and it’ll just end up looking like an ‘x’ or something if we try and cover everything. We put salt by the windows and at the doorstep every night, we got plenty of crosses around to deter him, I think this is as good as we can get. I don’t want even the risk that your asshole of a dead husband can get in, but we have so many crosses in here right now, Char, so many crosses. If he can still get in, there’s nothing we can do, we just have to wait it out. They said it will be over on the first of November, that’s like, three more weeks we can make it until then,” Ted assured, kneeling down to her level in her wheelchair and kissing her hands.

“I… I know, Ted, I just… he’d gonna hurt us, you know it. I know they said they can’t do that right now, but he’s gonna keep trying. Especially you, I think, since you are the one that…” she said, trailing off.

“I am the one who killed him, technically, I know,” Ted said with a sigh. “It was that or let him kill you.”

“I know! I’m glad you did it, but he’s probably real mad,” Charlotte said, putting a hand on his cheek.

He gave her a halfhearted smile and stood back up. “Why don’t you change for bed? I’ll grab us a snack and we can watch ‘The Office’ in bed until we fall asleep,” Ted suggested.

“Sounds like a plan,” she agreed with a smile, rolling herself to the bedroom to change.

Ted busied himself with getting a plate full of cookies ready for them and grabbing the wine. Everyone who had an addiction prior to the Apotheosis had woken up with their bodies entirely rid of the substance, and many had kicked the habit afterwards. Charlotte hadn’t smoked since, and hadn’t drank excessively since Ted had gotten better, but the two of them still enjoyed a nice bottle of wine.

“You fucker,” a voice growled from behind him.

“Shit,” Ted whispered, not wanting to startle Charlotte. He closed his eyes and reminded himself that the ghost couldn’t harm him, even as the area around him grew colder and colder.

“I’m going to kill you,” Sam growled.

Ted swore he could feel Sam’s breath against his cheek and his body right behind him, though he knew it was a trick of his mind and the illusions of a ghost. The bottle of wine suddenly fell off the counter top and crashed to the floor beside him, causing him to gasp, though he refused to open his eyes. The bottle had been right by the edge, he knew the ghost didn’t have the strength to actually do anything more serious and was trying to scare him.

“Ted?” Charlotte called.

“Butter fingers!” he called back. Ted knew he wouldn’t be able to hide the fact that her dead husband was still able to get in from her for long, but he also knew the ghost would wear itself out soon and if he could hold tight, she wouldn’t have to be afraid tonight. He never wanted her to be afraid, certainly not of the bastard he’d killed to protect her.

“Fucker!” Sam hissed in his ear before his presence suddenly disappeared, leaving Ted behind with a broken bottle of wine at his feet and his breath hanging in the air due to the cold.

\---

Emma believed herself to be fairly happy with her life at present. Sure, there were problems. The town was slightly infested with ghosts. But! It could be worse! Jane had yet to appear to her, too busy haunting Tom, and Emma couldn’t imagine anyone else wanting to come after her. It appeared that no ghost older than five years had returned, and her boss hypothesized that those spirits had been gone too long to manifest in reality like these ghosts.

Because they weren’t normal ghosts, according to her boss, one Dr. Ermolai Orlov, rather they were spirits that had crossed over and now returned with a power source they had yet to identify. Normal ghosts were spirits who could not pass on due to some attachment, did not usually create ectoplasm, and did not have a power source, meaning they had to draw from energy around them. These ones seemed to go until the energy they had went out, then they disappeared for the night.

Usually when her boss or his partner began to talk about that shit, she just nodded like she understood and continued putting ectoplasm into containers for Dr. Volkov to test on. It was easier to let the weird Russian science boys do their thing than to start asking questions. That said, she had learned a lot. They were deterred by the same things normal spirits were deterred by, such as salt and iron and religious relics. Emma was also deterred by an excessive amount of all three of those, so she understood the ghosts’ staying away from them for the most part.

Paul was busy in the kitchen, doing the dishes while she was up in the bedroom folding laundry. Shit was boring, but they got tasks done faster when they weren’t in the same room together, because they would always end up talking. She enjoyed this stuff, living with Paul and being domestic with him. Emma had never thought she’d like being domestic, but there she was, totally fine with folding laundry quietly in a room she shared with her boyfriend.

Yeah, she thought she was pretty lucky. Emma had a dorky boyfriend who made her smile, and a weird job with weirder bosses, but one she enjoyed and found purpose in. Yes, it was the house she’d grown up in, but it didn’t feel like it. They’d changed so much, replaced all the furniture and were working on updating the place with Tom’s help. It felt like their place, with the fresh coats of colorful paint on the wall and the movie posters up in the living room and master bedroom. They’d converted Emma’s old room into an office, and Jane’s old room into an indoor garden. Emma thought she’d like that, even the weed that was growing among the flowers.

“Emma,” a familiar voice said, causing her to spin around in confusion.

“What the fuck? Why you?” Emma asked the wall.

“I knew you, Heart,” Zoey said, sounding as though she was in the closet.

“Yeah well, please leave!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t like you in life, sure as hell don’t want you here now.”

“Our time will come,” Zoey hissed, going through the closed closet door to come face to face with Emma.

It wasn’t exactly Zoey, Emma noted, though it was certainly some version of her. She was dressed as she died in the helicopter crash, neck bent at a strange angle. Her eyes though, her eyes were the problem, as they were very vibrantly glowing green. Emma could understand how people were mistaking them as the ghosts of their loved ones, but to her, it was fairly obvious. Zoey wasn’t Zoey, she was a pawn in a bigger game, and it probably had to do with the fact that she was ‘The Heart’ or whatever. Zoey even called her Heart. Emma knew how to handle the situation in that case.

“PAUL!” she shouted, stomping on the floor to get his attention where he was below her in the kitchen.

There was the sound of breaking glass and running, which caused Zoey to hiss and vanish in a flicker. A moment later, a panicked Paul arrived in the room, soapy and frazzled. That certainly worked. Emma supposed that meant Paul really was her Guardian destined to protect her. That was just fine by her. Paul looked kinda cute in his usual dorky way when he was worried about her.

“What’s happening, why did you yell, did you see a ghost?” he asked quickly.

“Yeah, it was Zoey. She called me the Heart and basically told me that she was chosen to haunt us because she knew me and said ‘Our Time Will Come’ which was ominous but genuinely more annoying than anything because the closet and all of our clothes inside of it are now covered in ectoplasm,” Emma explained.

Paul groaned. “My suits.”

“I wonder if dry cleaning gets out ectoplasm,” she said.

“I fucking hope so, otherwise I’m suing the ghosts for ruining all of my clothes,” Paul stated.

Emma rolled her eyes and pulled him down to her level so she could kiss him on the cheek. “Please tell me you didn’t break one of the four total bowls that we own.”

Paul’s silence in response told her everything she needed to know.

\---

Lex screamed as loudly as she could at the lake. Screaming at the lake was fun and good for getting stress out. The houses near the lake were used to rowdy teens on Friday and Saturday nights, and as long as no one actually sounded distressed or was noisy too late, it was totally fine. They were chill with it after decades of people like them going there, as long as they quieted down by eleven or so.

“You’re gonna wake up the ghosts,” Deb teased, taking a swig of her soda.

As promised to Alice, there was no alcohol, and not much smoking had happened. Alice hadn’t smoked, which was fair because she didn’t, but the rest of them passed the joint around, enjoying the night. Lex loved the fall, it was the best season, and it was almost her birthday. The fact that both she and her sister were born during October was not a coincidence, given that was the only time their dad would show up at the trailer, looking for warmth when his dealer would kick him out.

They had a better dad now, fuck that guy. Yeah, he was still alive as far as Lex knew, and was in Clivesdale being a dick, but he’d never had custody over them and wasn’t listed on their birth certificates. He hadn’t come looking for them after shit hit the fan either so double fuck him. Their mom didn’t survive the treatment because she’d been torn to shreds by the infected, what would have happened if Tom hadn’t taken them in? Fuck him. Not Tom, Tom was fine, fuck the sperm bank that made them.

Lex screamed again at the lake out of spite.

“Lexie…” a voice called from behind the teens, causing them all to jump and stand up.

“Babe, was that…?” Ethan asked.

Lex nodded as she turned around to see if her mom was there. No, the ghost wasn’t visible there, but the wind did begin to blow and the temperature began to drop. Ethan stepped in front of her as Alice and Deb stood on either side of her. The ghost was clearly aiming at Lex, for obvious reasons, and they were going to protect their friend as well as they could. Lex really loved these idiots.

“Mom, leave us alone, you never cared about me in life, don’t pretend to now,” Lex called, unsure where her mother’s spirit was. She fought the urge to summon the gun she had been authorized to have into her hand as she knew it would not help, but felt like she needed _something_. Instead she focused on the bag of sidewalk salt in their garage and summoned a handful of it into both hands, just in case.

“Join me, Lexie…” the voice called, now behind them.

They all quickly turned around to see the disgusting form of her mother’s spirit hovering over the lake. Lex threw a handful of salt at her, causing the spirit to screech and disappear, and for branches of the trees above them to begin falling as the wind picked up. Clearly she’d upset it, but luckily it couldn’t do more than that.

“ALEXANDRA!” her mother screamed, reforming in front of them.

Lex threw the other handful of salt, and the spirit to screech once more before losing its form, flickering, and disappearing. “Fuck you, mom,” she hissed, the wind dying down and the temperature once again warming now that the spirit had left.

“Holy cow,” Alice whispered, holding onto Deb.

“Shit, yeah, let’s be ghost busters!” Deb exclaimed, high fiving Lex with a laugh.

“That was actually really badass, babe,” Ethan said, pulling Lex into a kiss.

“Don’t sound so surprised!” Lex said, gently pushing Ethan. “I am a total badass, I can handle shit on my own. But totally, we should be our own Solve-It Squad.”

That was mostly a joke, and yet, it was a tempting thing to consider. Perhaps they could be even cooler than them, considering everything. They didn’t even need a dog!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They only had four bowls. Now they have three. Woo.
> 
> The ghosts will continue getting progressively stronger. They have an end goal set for them, a desire for bodies once more. The living may find them quite... possessive... in the future.


	11. When The Bell Rings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grace Chastity and Hot Chocolate Boy are formally introduced, kind of. Ethan writes John an email. Xander is having a really rough time, honestly, and neither of them is sure what is happening or how to fix it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellooooo! I hope you all are doing well. Things are slowly amping up in anti and we will eventually get to Halloween! And then we have a whole other month until Black Friday lol.
> 
> Warnings! For screen readers, there is a section of the second scene where there are typoes, sorry in advance. Ethan is not a good speller. The third scene is also kind of sad, so warning for that.

“So are we gonna get our own mystery van and everything?” Alice asked with a laugh as she ate her nuggets.

“Nah, we’ve got my jalopy, and Deb’s got her car, we’ll be fine,” Ethan replied with a wave of his hand.

Lex laughed and rolled her eyes saying, “Nobody calls old beat up cars jalopys anymore but you.”

“Ehh, it’ll catch on,” Ethan said, waving her off as well, causing her to laugh some more.

Suddenly, a tray was sat between Lex and Deb, and one Grace Chastity sat down between them, quickly followed by Oliver Green, who sat beside his cousin and put his head down immediately. Alice rolled her eyes and took a drink from her milk carton as if it were alcohol. There was nothing wrong with Grace, really, she was fine, she was nice, she just… was so sweet all the time and such a goody two shoes. Alice knew she herself was a sweet goody two shoes, and that was why she was kind of friends with Grace, but not entirely. Grace just took it further than Alice did, and she found it a bit annoying.

“What have you four been up to? You haven’t been around at all since the faire,” Grace said, taking a bite of her sandwich.

“We have been very lonely,” Oliver squeaked.

Ethan rolled his eyes and handed Oliver his chocolate milk. “Your sugar’s low. Drink this or I’ll shove it down your throat.”

Oliver just accepted the chocolate milk and began sipping on it.

“Did Tom see anything while you two were waiting with him?” Lex asked.

“That doesn’t answer my question and also… no? You mean like the ghosts? No, we didn’t see any,” Grace replied.

“We’re gonna be ghost hunters, do you two wanna join?” Deb asked cheerfully.

“So that’s why you’ve been avoiding us. You do not think we are cool enough to be ghost hunters,” Oliver stated, staring out into the void as he tended to do.

“Drink your damn milk, Ollie,” Ethan sighed. “I will shove it down your throat.”

“It’s not that you guys aren’t cool enough, it’s just…” Lex trailed off.

“It’s that…?” Grace asked, raising an eyebrow. “The only one here who survived the Apotheosis was Ethan, so that can’t be a reason. It also can’t be because we aren’t connected to you guys in some way, since Oliver is Ethan’s cousin. Sooo… Why have you been avoiding us? You didn’t deny that you are.”

Alice sighed and sat down her milk. “Lex lives on the base and is basically the leader’s apprentice. Ethan is her boyfriend, that’s his connection, it’s with Lex, so his connection to Oliver doesn’t count. My Uncle Paul is dating her Aunt Emma, so I’m connected to all this through him, and Deb is connected through me. We didn’t want to include you two because if the adults find out we’re planning something like this, they’ll freak. You two don’t need to get in trouble too.”

“When did you start planning this?” Grace asked.

“Friday. We didn’t invite you two to the lake because we were seeing if any ghosts would show up,” Lex explained. “Also we were smoking weed and Oliver has asthma so…”

Grace seemed to relax at that, relieved they weren’t excluding them for bad reasons like ‘we decided you two actually aren’t cool enough after all’. “Well, we want to help. I can sweeten the pot by offering to buy snacks,” she suggested.

The others shared a look before shrugging. Snacks were a good enough offer to the teens, and if they wanted to risk getting in trouble then maybe they weren’t as big of nerds as they had thought.

“Great! So what’s the plan?” Grace asked, leaning forward with a mischievous grin.

\---

As much as Ethan loved to stay over at the Houston’s house over the weekend, he did have a love for his own bed. His mother’s recovery hadn’t been terrible, and when she was healthy enough the pair went back home together. Don’t take it the wrong way, he loved the Houstons like family, and still spent a lot of time over at their place! He just… well, he’d missed his mom a bit.

Now, she wasn’t the best of mothers, or people. She drank to cope with the grief from losing her husband, and she would get so stressed due to being a single mother that sometimes she’d scream or break down. There were times he got so frustrated with her that he wanted to run away, to live with the Houstons and move on, but he couldn’t. Even before, when they planned to run away, he still hesitated. It was so frustrating having to take care of her when she broke down, and that she couldn’t provide for them the way she should, but Ethan knew she wasn’t stable, that she hadn’t been since his dad died and that she’d probably had problems even before that. As much as he didn’t want the responsibility, somebody had to keep her afloat when she was home, so she could go to work later.

In a heartbeat, he’d leave her behind though. If Lex changed her mind about running away, Ethan had a bag packed. That wasn’t going to happen though. Lex was happy now, and Hannah was safe. Things had never been as bad for him as it was for them, and if he needed somewhere to crash he always had the Houston’s place to go to. When he went to college, he wouldn’t ever have to think about his mom again, though he knew he’d still come if she needed him. In the end though, it wasn’t his job to take care of his own mother. If she drowned in whiskey, that wasn’t on him.

It was, apparently, his job to take care of Hannah and Lex. About a week ago, Lex had explained to him that he was their Guardian, and he’d just shrugged and accepted it. He loved those girls more than he knew how to express, of course he’d protect them with everything he had in him. Ethan wanted to spend his life with Lex, he wanted to help her take care of Hannah no matter how independent Hannah ended up being when she was older. Tom made that easier, of course. They didn’t have to worry about Hannah so much anymore, and she was getting the support she needed.

Finding out the universe chose him to take care of Lex and Hannah hadn’t actually surprised him all that much. The professor had said that the Guardian did what they did out of love and for no other reason, usually romantic or sibling in nature. Lex was the love of his life, and Hannah was like a little sister to him. They were a matching set, he couldn’t have taken one without the other, not even back when he first met Lex and befriended her. He knew the moment he met Hannah that he needed to win her over too, or he’d never get anywhere with Lex. He had been right, and he had won her over. Happily ever after was wonderful.

Now, Lex was planning on going to Springfield-Franconia University in DC like McNamara and Xander had. Ethan had never thought about college, not really. It had never seemed possible, between his grades and his responsibility with Lex and Hannah, college had never really crossed his mind. When Lex decided she wanted to go though, and to follow in John’s footsteps in PEIP, well, Ethan knew he had to go with her.

Part of him wondered if it was part of the Guardian thing, not wanting to be too far from her, but DC was so far away from their little town in Michigan, and if she was going to be a cool monster fighter, then so was he. Who cared if it was part of his job? If he wanted to be by her side in the future and work for PEIP, he had to go to school, and to go to school he needed to be accepted into school. That was the scary part.

Ethan had never been a great student. Maybe if his dad had been around, he would have been diagnosed with his problems sooner and he would have been able to focus in school and understand what he was supposed to learn. Now he was playing catch up on thirteen years of schooling it seemed, now that he could actually read a little easier. He’d managed to squeak his way through the years with just barely passing grades, just enough to get to the next grade because none of the teachers wanted him for another year.

No, he was the problem child, the bad boy who never cared about school and never cried at night because he couldn’t understand why he couldn’t understand. Clearly he only acted out because he was a rotten apple with no prospects other than prison, because he just didn’t care enough to put in the time and effort. Well guess what, Mrs. Kaminski! Guess fucking what! He did care! The entire time! Lex had tried so hard to help him understand but they didn’t know dyslexia was a thing. Maybe! Maybe if the teachers had paid attention rather than writing him off as impossible, he would have gotten diagnosed sooner and gotten support for his needs.

Now he had a terrible track record with a history of academic reprimands and suspensions for fights and talking back to teachers. No college on the planet would want him, even though he’d done summer school and did well in that, or that his SAT score hadn’t been all that bad after Tom sat with him for hours and hours helping him study. Nobody was going to accept him because he was a problem and a half, and still didn’t have the best of grades.

That didn’t stop him from applying though. He had to do it. He had to try. Ethan was a lot of things but a coward wasn’t one. He had to apply to SFU so he could go to school with Lex. It was the only school in the country that actually offered Paranormal Studies as a concentration, the only school in the country with classes on the subject that actually counted. Lex was going to get into SFU without problem, it was where she needed to go and McNamara had given her a glowing recommendation. Ethan though?

The counselor at his school had said that he shouldn’t apply early, that he should wait for fall grades to come in to increase his odds, but… Lex was applying early, and she was definitely going to get in. They wouldn’t know until December in all likelihood, but when General John McNamara, a shining light from your school, tells you to accept his protege, you did it. Ethan didn’t know McNamara all that well, they had never really spoken, but he knew the man was his only chance of getting into SFU, and so he got to work on his email to the general, a plea for assistance.

“Dear General McNamara,

I am Ethan Green, Lex’s boyfriend. We have never spoken, but I have a request for you. I know you sent SFU a recommendation letter on Lex’s behalf, would you do it for me too? I don’t have much of a chance at getting accepted without help, and I wnat to work for PEIP when I grow up too. She says I’m her guardian, well I wnat to be there for her in college. I’ve been trying really hard to do well in school adn I will continue to do so, but I’m never gonna be on the honor roll, sir. Please help. I just want to be with Lex and work for PEIP. I’m gonna be a grwat field agent, just you wait. Take a risk on me, and I promise I’ll make good on it.

Sincerely,  
Ethan Green  
PS.  
Sorry for typoes I tried my best but I letters mix aorund and it’s hard.”

\---

“Xander?” John asked softly from somewhere nearby.

Xander lifted a finger in recognition of his husband’s presence but didn’t react much otherwise. He was too busy laying on the ground in the portal room, watching the swirling energy above them and around the room, travelling in and out of the portal without any logic behind the movements. John couldn’t see the energy, Xander knew that. No one else seemed to be able to, and as time was passing it felt more and more like the energy was pulling on his very soul. He knew he was worrying John, laying down out of nowhere and not being particularly responsive, but… it was fascinating.

More than anything in the world, Doctor Xander Lee was a scientist, a physicist who focused on the theoretical and paranormal. He found his current situation to be a very interesting case study, even if he was the case being studied. Xander was the first person ever to have their soul pulled out of the Black and White and returned to their body. It was uncharted territory, no one knew how his soul and his body would react to the situation over time, every day was a new question. Yes, it was terrifying, because there was always the chance that it wouldn’t go well and he would have to die, but as a scientist, he was going to study this as long as he could.

Beginning from the day after the event and steadily growing stronger, Xander was seeing the spirits of the ones who escaped with him, even when they were too weak to manifest themselves. He could see- not just see, but feel the energy from the portal in ways he never could before, because he hadn’t been able to see or feel anything before. Not even John saw or felt anything from it, though he did say directly after returning he had, and that by the time he returned to work Monday all had returned to normal for him. Xander… for Xander it was just growing stronger.

The sensations and sights were near maddening. It wasn’t painful, just intense, and the pull to the portal hadn’t ceased. He dreamed of the Black and White, he dreamed of being there like his soul was being drawn back in. Xander kept finding himself back in the portal room, unsure how he got there, but just laying near the portal and watching the energy as if entranced. That was how he’d ended up where he was now, unable to pull himself away from the energy around the room, not even to look at John.

Xander knew this was all making John more and more worried. He’d managed to pull Xander away from the portal and the lights so far, but every time it happened it was slightly harder to let go, slightly harder to return to the present. Xander knew he should be afraid, but truly he just felt a bone deep calm over him and the situation. What was would be, though that wasn’t his usual philosophy. 

He had the unfortunate propensity of being mind controlled. They both knew it. Schaeffer knew it. Anything that managed to offer his constantly swirling mind a reprieve could hold a sway over him, as his high speed brain always desired a break from the stress it was under. It wasn’t his fault! Xander was a genius whose mind never shut up. From the moment he woke to the moment he fell asleep, he was spinning spinning spinning in his mind, creating new things and working on something else. That wasn’t even to mention his anxiety. Xander could not know mental peace, and that allowed him to be easily won over by something that offered it, without Xander’s conscious consent in the matter.

Xander hypothesized that this was likely something similar, as he felt at peace, and he did not trust peace. Some part of the Black and White seemed to still hold sway over his soul, and it was causing these spells where he found himself lying in the portal room. He didn’t know what was happening exactly, but he doubted it was good, as he realized John had been talking to him that entire time and Xander hadn’t heard a word of it.

“Are you with me?” John asked, squeezing Xander’s hand.

The worry in John’s voice killed Xander. He knew his husband blamed himself for whatever was happening, rightfully, but it still made Xander sad. With some difficulty, Xander pulled his eyes away from the energy to look at John, blinking a few times at the change in brightness. Slowly, the world began to come back to him and he felt his soul settle inside his body once more, still not entirely fit into the right spot, but there nevertheless.

John gave him a small smile as he watched Xander slowly returning to the present. That wasn’t a happy smile, it was a relieved one, Xander noted. They hadn’t spoken about the situation, but they didn’t need to. It was slowly and progressively getting worse, and he knew John feared the day he couldn’t pull Xander away. This wasn’t a super power, it was the result of his soul being unrest within him, Xander believed. The further into the month they got the worse it was becoming. What would happen when John couldn’t pull him away? They didn’t know.

“I’m with you,” he finally said, gingerly pushing himself up with his arms to look around. “I lost time this episode, I don’t know how I got here or how long it’s been.”

“What is your name?” John asked, putting a hand on Xander’s back to give him extra support.

It took Xander a moment to understand the question before replying, “Doctor Xander Lee.”

“What day is it?” John asked, his voice growing more into his ‘work’ voice as he did.

“It… It’s October… 15th,” Xander said, noting how difficult it was to remember that.

“Do you know where we are?” John asked, clearly (to Xander) masking his own discomfort at Xander’s difficulty with his work voice.

Where were they? Xander blinked hard trying to remember before saying, “Portal Room in the Headquarters building.”

“Who is the president?” John asked.

“President Goodman,” he said, feeling more confident about that.

“What are the three items on our mantle at home?”

“Wedding pictures, Jeffrey the Plant, and your old boy scouts badges,” Xander said, more confident. “And you are my husband, John, and we live on base. I’m coming around now. I still don’t remember how I got here.”

“What do you last remember?” John asked, squeezing his husband’s shoulder gently.

Xander thought about it for a moment before saying, “It was lunchtime. I was going over to this building to eat with you.”

John was silent for a moment before pulling Xander in for a hug. Xander accepted the action, unsure what had prompted it. His husband took a breath before saying, “That was roughly five hours ago. You never arrived for lunch and I thought you’d forgotten again. I didn’t know you were missing until I came to check on you fifteen minutes ago.”

“Shit,” Xander whispered, hugging John closer. Five hours. He’d lost five hours of time. No one had noticed he was in the room because it was closed except for those working on fixing the portal so no one had entered during that time.

“I’m sorry, Xander,” John whispered into Xander’s shoulder, holding him tightly. “This is my fault, I am so sorry this is happening.”

“We’ll make it through,” Xander said, refusing to let go. “We’ll always make it through.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this reality, Tom does not know Grace because he hasn't needed a babysitter due to how things ended up working out, hence why he only referred to her and HCB/Oliver as Lex and Ethan's friends. Previously they were going to be smoke club members but I changed my mind.
> 
> There are consequences for your soul going to the Black and White and then being trust into your body again. It isn't neat or pretty.


	12. Come on Kids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannah and Tim find a commercial about a strange new toy quite unnerving. Paul and Emma must say goodbye to Leopold. Deb struggles against her parents. The Teen Crew hack into PEIP and curse out a ghost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a few days! I've been busy with school work and haven't had time to finish the chapter until now. Forewarning, I retconned Paul's backstory a bit and that is mentioned in the second scene. Why? Because I had a basic idea but then came up with a better one so it be like that. Does anyone have any name ideas for the teens' club? They deserve a little team name. This chapter is also a bit longer oops.
> 
> Warnings! Mentions of Wiggly in the first scene and also capitalism. Second scene talks about the attachment to inanimate objects that can happen for neurodivergent folks. Third scene discusses how shitty Deb's parents are and that can be a form of abuse I suppose. In the last scene Ethan curses out Lex and Hannah's mother.

“He's a wiggly snig  
And a sniggly wiggly (Yeah!)  
A fwendy-wend  
That makes you giggly!”

“What the fuck is this?” Tim asked, gesturing at the television and looking at Hannah.

Hannah looked up at the screen, seeing the strange green things dancing around the screen. She did not like those things, not one bit, no sir. They were bad, she could feel it, so was the strange man. “Fake beard,” she muttered, looking back down at the toy in her hands.

Tim laughed and rolled his eyes. “Grownups are so weird, why do they think we like this stuff?”

She shrugged. “Capitalism.”

“The world will be a  
Playground full of magic and Sniggle songs  
And when you're feeling down  
He's there to sing along!”

“Why is this commercial so long?!” he cried, scrambling for the remote to change the channel. Tim quickly changed the channel from Disney to Cartoon Network only to hear:

“On this Black Friday  
He will hit the shelves  
He's riding Santa's sleigh  
'Cause he's fwends with all the elves!”

Both children shouted at the television, scrambling for the remote once more to turn it off. As the screen went black, Tom burst out of the garage and ran into the room, looking confused and slightly concerned. “What the hell is going on in here?! What’s with the shouting?”

“Capitalism!” Tim shouted.

“What do you mean capitalism?!” Tom exclaimed.

“Evil doll!” Hannah cried.

“What do you mean evil doll?!” Tom said even louder and more confused.

“Evil doll!” she repeated.

“Hannah, I do not understand what you are talking about!” Tom said, taking a deep breath to calm down.

“Evil doll!” Hannah insisted.

Tom took another deep breath. “Okay. There’s an evil doll. What can I do about this?”

“Nothing, it was on the TV and we hate it, because capitalism,” Tim explained, pointing at the black screen.

“There was an evil doll on the television, so you both started screaming, because you hate… capitalism…” Tom said slowly.

“Yeah, basically,” Tim agreed.

Hannah could see that Tom was trying very hard not to laugh now, the corners of his mouth beginning to turn into a grin as he paused and took another breath.

“You two are ten years old. Why the fuck do you hate capitalism enough to start screaming and giving your dad a heart attack while he’s working with an electric drill?” he asked, slowly again.

“Evil toy, evil capitalism,” Hannah said sagely.

Tom rubbed his eyes with one hand, still trying very hard not to laugh. “Okay, okay, the doll is evil and so is capitalism. Alright. I can’t argue with that I suppose. I’m betting my drill’s broken now, because I dropped it to see what was happening in here, so thanks for that.”

“Sorry, Dad,” Tim said sheepishly.

“Just-... no yelling in the house, alright? Not unless something crazy is happening,” Tom stated, giving them both a stern look, though he still had the sparkle of amusement in his eyes.

“Promise!” Hannah agreed.

“Yep, promise!” Tim added.

Tom nodded and headed back out to the garage as the children looked at each other. When their father was out of earshot they giggled, finding the whole thing a bit funny. The doll was still freaky, and they did not like it one bit, but they managed to make their dad laugh by talking about capitalism, even though they didn’t really understand what capitalism was. Hannah had heard Lex say it before and got the basic gist of it, she thought.

\---

“Paul, honey, we can’t keep the broken pot,” Emma said calmly.

Paul knew they could not keep the broken pot. You had to throw away broken pieces of pottery and such. He knew that the pot needed to go into the trash and go away forever, but that didn’t make it any easier. The pot had been in his possession for maybe five years. It looked like a lady bug and Bill gave it (more specifically the succulent inside of it) to him to keep him company. He’d named it Leopold and it was a very kind pot. Now it was in pieces and Paul was trying very hard not to cry.

“I know,” Paul said, his eyes still locked on the broken pot as he hit his fists against each other.

“It was a very nice pot, but it has to go now,” she said, gently squeezing his arm.

“Leopold was a good pot,” he agreed, blinking and tilting his head a bit.

She nodded and squeezed his arm again. “I know you loved him a lot, and that’s good, but we have to move on.”

He nodded in agreement. “I know.”

It was hard to express the emotion connected to it. He knew the pot was an inanimate object, but he’d named it and that made it a person to his brain. His brain’s insistence on attaching itself to inanimate objects was frustrating and it made throwing things away difficult. Paul had a hard time letting go of old, threadbare ties and shirts he had from high school, but he didn’t have to have had something that long to get attached to it. He never went anywhere without his watch anymore because it belonged on his wrist.

Emma had figured it out pretty quickly, she didn’t entirely understand but they’d had this conversation about smaller things before. She’d helped him let go of a lot of old junk he didn’t need anymore when they moved in together, so this process wasn’t new. It was a routine sort of conversation now, and that made the process easier too.

Paul was autistic. He’d gotten diagnosed in kindergarten at the behest of his teachers. His parents had been great about it, better than others anyway, and insisted he be allowed to continue going to class with the ‘normal’ students rather than put away with the- Paul didn’t like the words they used back then, and did not want to repeat them. It was good, he was weird to the others, but it allowed him to be a part of ‘normal’ classes. If it weren’t for that, he doubted he would have gotten into college.

When he was seven, his parents died suddenly in a firework related accident on the Fourth of July, or at least that was what he was told. He didn’t really remember the day, but did know many people died, mostly adults. Afterwards, he was raised by his Great Aunt Patricia who genuinely tried to do right by him. She had never married, and it was just the two of them in her house in the Sycamore side of town. 

They weren’t nearly the poorest people in town, but they lived off her pension from her time as a librarian, which didn’t bring much in. She refused to allow him to take a part time job, however, insisting that he focus on schoolwork. It was because of her support that he went to college, though she had no money to assist in his tuition. Instead of studying journalism, which had been his goal, he studied business, purely so he would know he would have a solid income in a less competitive field when he graduated.

That was fine though! He was happy in his office, business was fun! It made sense and was easy to do, for the most part. Numbers weren’t exactly his favorite thing ever, but he was good enough at it, and a good enough writer that his reports were sound and understandable to their boss who was not the numbers guy. He had been surprised to find that he and his coworkers were necessarily ‘friends’ before the Apotheosis, because he had figured that was how it worked, but Paul had Bill and now they were really friends with Charlotte and Ted.

His great aunt had died while he was in college, not his parents like he’d told Charlotte and Emma months ago. He didn’t mind mentioning that they were dead, he just preferred to have people not pity him for losing them at such a young age. Paul had spent the majority of his life as the boy whose parents died when he was little, he didn’t want to be seen like that by his friends as well. He hadn’t been able to live with the lie while actually living with Emma though, and had told her the truth around the Fourth of July.

“Bill can give us a new potted plant,” Emma suggested. “I know it meant a lot to you because it came from Bill, would that help?”

Paul nodded. “It wouldn’t be a replacement, just a new gift from Bill.”

“Exactly. We can ask him about it when we see him Sunday. I’m sure he’d be happy to do it, he gave us a plant for the plant room before,” Emma said, running a hand through Paul’s hair.

He enjoyed the sensation and smiled a bit, saying, “Leopold did a good job being a pot, but now we have to let go of it because it is broken.”

Emma nodded. “Do you want to do the honors or would you like me to do it?” she asked, gesturing towards the trash can.

“Can you?” he asked, the idea of doing it himself making him almost change his mind again, returning to hitting his fists together.

She kissed the top of his head as she stood and collected the parts of ceramic. “Of course, Hon.”

“You are the best girlfriend in the world,” he said, smiling warmly as she threw the pieces away.

“I think there are plenty of people in this town who would disagree with you,” Emma replied with a laugh. “We know a lot of people who really love their girlfriends.”

\---

Deb was more than a little annoyed. In fact, she was straight up frustrated. Her parents made her watch as her dad dismantled the lattice around the area of her bedroom window. They had discovered that she was using the holes in it to climb down and sneak out, and now they were getting rid of her exit. First her car, now this, she was beginning to feel more and more like a prisoner in her own home. She wouldn’t have to sneak out if they weren’t such assholes that she felt like she needed to escape them in the first place, but oh no, no it’s her fault for being a terrible daughter and person.

Her phone buzzed and she knew it was likely Alice texting to ask where she was. It was Friday night and with the ghost activity increasing in intensity, the group of teens were supposed to meet at Lex’s house to talk about it and babysit the kids while her dad was apparently ‘totally not going on a date’. Alice was set to pick her up around the block from her house, and it was probably ten minutes after they were supposed to meet up so she was likely worrying. Deb couldn’t text her until she got back to her room though, or risk her parents taking her phone away as well.

Should Alice be driving without a full license, you may ask? Alice had been set to get her actual license the weekend after the Apotheosis happened, and by the time she got better she had to go through the full process again practically, meaning the powers that be were far more lenient with cases like hers. It wasn’t her fault she’d been infected by an alien thingy and didn’t technically get all of her driving hours in before she took the test because they expired while she was dead.

In any case, she received a few more texts before she was allowed to run to her room and respond, explaining the situation and that for the foreseeable future she was not going to be able to sneak out. Her room was on the second floor and there was no safe way to get to the ground anymore. Deb felt a bit like a disney princess, maybe Rapunzel, because she was being trapped in a small place with no escape, considering she dared not leave her room more than necessary. The whole situation just sucked.

\---

“Yo, we’re Deborah?” Lex asked as Ethan led Alice into the living room.

Alice rolled her eyes and replied, “Her parents are being stereotypical Disney villains again so she can’t make it.”

“Awe that sucks. Have a seat, Grace is making popcorn and Oliver is doing cool hacker shit,” Lex replied, gesturing for Alice to sit in one of the many chairs in the room.

The kids were in the office playing quietly together, so she wasn’t worrying about them at the moment, they would get popcorn too, of course, but they probably weren’t going to need Lex to rush into the office and save them from anything. Tom was out with Becky, and despite him insisting it wasn’t a date, Lex knew better. He’d put hair products in his hair after his shower and smelled like cologne when he left, he was totally trying to be handsome. 

“Who are you hacking?” Alice asked as she sat, looking concerned at the prospect.

“PEIP,” Oliver said simply, gesturing towards the side of the base where the actual work took place. He was quite gifted with computers and became part of the friend group after offering to hack into the police department to delete a file they had on Lex about her shoplifting. Before that he was just Ethan’s annoying younger cousin, now he was their incredibly intelligent but nerdy hacker friend with a weak constitution.

“Why?” Alice asked, pulling her sweater closer around herself.

Lex shrugged. “We wanna know what they know about the ghosts. There’s stuff McNamara can’t tell me because of confidentiality shit, so we’re finding it ourselves, if Oliver can hack in.”

“Popcorn!” Grace said cheerfully as she entered the room with the bags, placing them on the coffee table and sitting down next to Oliver. “I already gave the kids their bag, don’t worry.”

“Is hacking into the super secretive military computer system really a good idea?” Alice asked.

“Thanks for the popcorn,” Ethan said, grabbing a handful. “And, probably not? There’s no way they’ll give a bunch of teens what we wanna know without breaking a few laws. But what are they gonna do? These guys are more likely to hire someone who fucks with them than they are to throw them in jail.”

“There’s a guy who works in the chain of command who they put through college because he managed to make a small portal to the Black and White in his basement as a teenager, which exploded but like, they were super impressed,” Lex said.

In a room of five people, over half of them looked confused at that. Lex didn’t blame them, especially not Grace and Oliver who had been involved in these talks even less than Alice. Ethan also appeared to be confused but she chalked it up to him not understanding how that was at all possible rather than him not knowing what the Black and White was.

“Can you repeat that so that people who aren’t you can understand?” Grace asked.

Lex rolled her eyes and said, “There’s an alternate dimension called the Black and White. Something on the other side caused the portal PEIP created to freak out, that’s how the ghosts got here. Lieutenant Code Johnson made a small version of it in his basement because he thought the place might exist and he didn’t do it right so it exploded and PEIP found out about it, so they paid for him to go to college.”

“So the ghosts are from the Black and White,” Alice stated with a nod, “okay.”

“Is… that heaven? Or hell?” Grace asked, looking concerned.

“It’s the Black and White, no idea. We do know these ghosts are totally fucked up versions of who they used to be though, so if you believe in heaven and hell, it’s probably not heaven,” Lex said with a shrug.

Oliver returned to typing away on his computer, doing God knew what. “So what caused the power surge? If it was from the other side and it allowed the ghosts out, it’s the real threat, right? Not the ghosts.”

“They’re a red herring!” Alice agreed. “They’re not the real problem, the real problem is whatever helped them out!”

“Exactly, so we need to-”

Lex was cut off by a scream from the office and the sounds of crashing. She and Ethan both immediately bolted over to the other room, recognizing the scream as Hannah’s. In the room they saw her mother in the center, with books pulling themselves sharply out of the bookshelf. Lex ran and held onto the kids as Ethan stood between them, knowing that she needed to comfort them and trusting Ethan would be able to scare the ghost away.

“SOULS!” their mother screeched. “You are in the way! You both must die!”

“Yeah yeah, get the FUCK out of our house!” Ethan shouted right back at her, standing his ground. “You ain’t touching my girls, not one hair on their fucking heads, none of you pieces of shit! I will fuck you up I swear to God! Get the fuck out of here, I am their Guardian and I am telling you that you aren’t welcome here!”

Hannah and Lex’s mother screeched once more, a few more books flying off of the shelf before she seemed to scream herself out, flickering out of existence. Lex gave a look towards Ethan, then to her friends standing in the doorway as she held the crying children. This was what they were trying to fix, this was what they were trying to stop. Fuck PEIP if they got in their way, Lex needed to keep their mother away from her sister if it was the last thing she did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lex calls Deb Deborah to get on her nerves at times. The ghost stuff is getting worse. It is October 18th in this chapter.
> 
> If one of my pots with my plants in it broke I would cry, they are all named and I love them.
> 
> Hannah genuinely isn't sure what capitalism is, just that Lex and Ethan don't like it so it must be bad.


	13. There Are Monsters That Live In Your Head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xander has a startling and confusing meeting with a fellow scientist. Emma chats with her boss about the problems of other people. Charlotte and Ted talk about the time before the Apotheosis. Bill has sad boi hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is uhhhhhhhhh long, sorry, it's about eight and a half pages long, because SOMEONE (Bill) decided he needed to have a whole thing. It was valid, however, and it happens. This is also a fairly sad chapter, sorry. Nick's tweet about Charlotte and Ted had me trying to fix things, then Bill happened. The first two scenes aren't too sad, averagely sad for not specifically funny scenes, and are more plot related.
> 
> Lots of warnings today, weeeee! Scene one should be fine, so should the second. The third scene with Charlotte and Ted talks about infidelity, and references/implies past domestic/child abuse in Ted's childhood. There is also a lot of self blame in that scene, as well as the last one, where Bill's suicide attempt is mentioned and he has a real bad self hate episode. The last scene also mentions drinking, which I know can bother people.

Xander knew he had been staring at the screen in front of him for a period of time that exceeded the amount he SHOULD have stared at it, considering he hadn’t read a single word. It wasn’t that he didn’t WANT to read it, it was that he’d found himself stuck again. He wasn’t in the portal room, but he could still feel the energy in his mind and in his soul and it was becoming increasingly difficult to get work done. Xander had to try though, his side of the organization was what was most needed now, he needed to be functional.

“Agent Lee, I have figured it out!” an excited voice called from the doorway.

Xander snapped out of his trance and turned to see Dr. Pavel Volkov standing there with one of the canisters of ectoplasm in his hands. Dr. Volkov and Dr. Orlov were Russian scientists and defectors who chose to come to PEIP and offer their services after escaping. As a child, Pavel had been ‘accepted’ into a secretive project of the Soviet Union dedicated to understanding those with connections to the Black and White. Even after the fall, the project had secretly continued and he had been forced to work for the government until Dr. Ermolai Orlov, who had been friends with Pavel since childhood, planned an escape to America for them both.

When they got to PEIP, they’d offered their services, as they were parabiologists with the skills needed for espionage/field work who loved to help and study science but couldn’t stay in Russia anymore. PEIP had accepted their offer, cautious due to the fact that they could easily just be Russian spies with a bad cover story. Their research indicated that, no, they really were former Russian agents who were parabiologists and needed to leave Russia for their safety. It wasn’t clear to John, who had handled the situation, if the pair was a couple or not, but they were clearly quite fond of each other and worked best as partners, so who were they to split them up?

Both John and Xander felt sorrow for Pavel, knowing that if John had been born elsewhere, or if someone else had taken him in when his parents died, he would have very possibly ended up like the man. He was of a nervous disposition, flitting about like a fearful bird who had never been out of a cage before. The man had a strong will, but they knew the sort of things he’d been through, the experiments that had been done. That could have been John, instead it was the mousy man at his door smiling cheerfully while holding the canister up higher.

“You figured it out?” Xander asked, swallowing because he realized he had no idea what the conversation was about. He should know this. Clearly this was important.

“Yes! Electricity worked!” Pavel replied as he flittered into the room and sat the canister down on the desk so he could open it.

How to handle the conversation… hmm… Xander had genuinely no idea what Pavel was talking about. “How so?” he finally asked as Pavel began putting ectoplasm on a petri dish.

“I needed a way to remove the ectoplasm to discover what the substance inside of it was,” he explained, pulling out a device that almost looked like a cow prod. “Heat did not get rid of the ectoplasm, and fire got rid of both substances, so I tried electricity and then I had to keep trying until I found the correct amount of electricity so it wouldn’t destroy both because the green stuff is very flammable.”

What the fuck was this man talking about? “And you figured it out?” Xander said, pretending that he understood what was going on.

As an answer, the eccentric scientist shocked the ectoplasm with his electrical stick. Xander jumped as the thing made popping sounds, having not necessarily expected the show even though Pavel had been setting it up. When he was done, Pavel put the device back in his pocket and handed Xander the dish with a smile. He took it, and assessed the dish now that the ectoplasm was gone, only to find that inside it was only green fuzz.

Ah, right. The ectoplasm had a green tint to it. He’d put Pavel in charge of figuring out why since he and Ermolai were the ones he had placed as the heads of the ectoplasm research. “So this is why the ectoplasm is green? It’s fuzzy? Why is that?” Xander asked. He was a physicist, not a biologist, he didn’t really understand that sort of science.

“Well, normal ectoplasm does not have fuzz. These ghosts, that are powered by something outside of themselves? They have fuzz,” Pavel explained.

“The fuzz is coming from the one powering them. Is the fuzz itself powering them? What is its’ makeup? If it’s weak to fire, that’s good to know, I’m sure you already marked it in the file. Now that you separated it, please focus on discovering as much as you can about the being the fuzz comes from. That’s our true enemy here,” Xander ordered.

Pavel nodded cheerfully and flittered out of the room with the petri dish and the canister, leaving Xander alone with his thoughts. His memory problems were only getting worse it seemed. The memories weren’t gone, they were just getting harder to find, leaving him grasping at straws like in the conversation he just had. It was worrying, but there was nothing they could do, as far as they knew. They just had to hope things would be better once Halloween rolled past them.

\---

Emma’s boss was a bit of a bastard, not necessarily in a bad way, but a bastard nevertheless. He was like if Sherlock Holmes was Russian, gay, and more interested in the paranormal than murder, then again Sherlock Holmes was pretty gay. For weeks her job had been collecting the ectoplasm and labeling the jars, and she was getting sick of it. Yeah, she knew it needed done, but that didn’t make it any less boring or sticky. That wasn’t the bastard part. The bastard part was that he had spent the majority of that time staring at a cork board with papers and pictures and string tying it all together while she did it.

“Have you won your staring contest yet?” Emma asked as she shoved another canister in its proper place.

“No,” the Russian man stated, continuing to look at the board.

“What are you even trying to figure out?” Emma asked. With her task done, she sat down on her desk and clasped her hands in front of her. “I might be able to help some. I’m no Sherlock Holmes but I was the one who figured out we needed to blow up the meteor, so…”

Dr. Ermolai Orlov turned to her, looking intently as if he was reading her soul before shrugging and turning back to the board. “I’m trying to figure out the connection between the ghosts and who is being haunted. Not everyone is being haunted, there must be a cause.”

“Paul and I have been mostly okay. My old coworker has showed up a few times to tell me they’re gonna kill me, but like, that’s pretty normal,” Emma said. “My brother-in-law’s been haunted daily by my sister. My boyfriend’s coworkers are being haunted by-”

“I have all the cases on the board here. We got the information straight from those afflicted. They had to tell us the frequency of the hauntings and such to get us to remove it,” Ermolai stated as he scratched his chin.

“So that’s why my job’s been to work with the gunk for the last few weeks,” Emma muttered.

Ermolai nodded. “They are being haunted by those they knew, and the ghosts clearly remember themselves, meaning they are trying to haunt them specifically. But, not everyone in town is being haunted, only certain people.”

“Isn’t it because all the ghosts are from the last five years?” she asked, kicking her legs back and forth as she continued sitting on her desk.

The man turned and raised an eyebrow at her. “Everyone has lost someone within the last five years. Tell me, did you have a deep connection to your coworker?”

“No? We didn’t actually like each other much,” Emma said.

“Then anyone that anyone knew who died within the last five years could haunt them, could they not?” Ermolai asked.

Emma considered the question before shrugging. “I guess you’re right. So why are these people being haunted and not everyone, right?”

“Right. Do you have any ideas?” Ermolai asked.

“You’re really asking me?” she asked in response.

Ermolai shrugged and turned back to the board. “Outside opinions are useful.”

“My sister hasn’t visited me at all while she’s been here, not once. She’s been at Tom’s place every single night. We both loved her, why hasn’t she visited me?” Emma asked rhetorically. “Could it… be more to do with us than the ghosts? I loved my sister, you know? I loved her a lot and I think about her all the time but I’ve used her death as a way to get a hold of my life, I’ve moved forward, I let her go.”

“And he has not, correct?” Ermolai said.

“Correct. Meanwhile, Paul and I… me more than him really, I’m still… dealing with the shit that happened during the Apotheosis? Like, we all are, but I was one of the survivors, I watched him sing to me while infected, I watched him die, suddenly, and be brought back, and I watched him heal. If the helicopter hadn’t crashed, if I’d been wearing my seatbelt, things would have been different. I might not have lived, Clivesdale would have been infected, we could have lost the world…” Emma said, trailing off as she thought about it all.

“You are haunted by the memories of that day,” Ermolai confirmed. “Tom is haunted by the memories of his wife. Miss Alexandra is haunted by the memories of her mother, Miss Barnes by the memories of her husband… Yes, I think you are right. It isn’t about who the ghosts are but the perspectives of living.”

“What do we do about it? Offer counselling? We can’t get rid of the ghosts, and they’re getting more violent,” Emma suggested.

Ermolai shrugged. “We give the information to the boss and let him come up with the plan, if he can.”

“If he can? Is something wrong with Xander?” Emma asked.

His eyebrows went up at that, and he sat on his own desk. “Well, you didn’t hear it from me, but no. It seems something is very wrong. Everything is slowed down because of it, we can’t get everything done that needs done because he’s not approving things quickly. I also heard that they keep finding him laid down in the spot he died in, just staring at the ceiling. It’s a difficult situation, but it’s bringing PEIP down with him. McNamara is too concerned about him to focus on the business at hand. It’s a real shit show right now in the administration.”

Emma nodded as she thought about what Ermolai said. She was going to have to tell the family about this. Tom and Becky both worked for PEIP as well, so they deserved to know, especially with the whole ghost thing going on. While she wasn’t close to Xander, he and John had come to family events in the past, and they cared about the couple. They were part of the family to a degree, and that meant this was their problem too.

\---

“Am I terrible?” Charlotte asked, sniffling as she rubbed her eyes.

Ted looked up from where he stood in the kitchen, appearing concerned before he rushed over and sat beside her on the couch. “Why would you be terrible?” he asked, clearly unsure what was going on.

“This is all my fault,” she said, as if that explained anything, and continued to sniffle.

“What are you talking about?” Ted asked, a hint of confused desperation in his voice.

“I cheated on Sam. I cheated on my husband and told them to destroy his body while I had them cure you,” Charlotte said as she continued crying.

Ted took a deep breath. “We’ve both done shitty stuff. His ghost hates me just as much as he hates you, if not more.”

“Oh I haven’t been good to you either!” she cried.

He felt a cold spike run through him. “What do you mean?” Ted asked.

“Before! You were always there and I knew you liked me and I just used you and I used other men too!” Charlotte explained. “I knew how you felt and that you’d come if I called and I didn’t want to do anything about it, not before everything went crazy. Now look at us! You’re being haunted by my husband because I played with your feelings and slept with other guys and now you’re always so nice to me, it’s just- I just-”

Oh thank God. He was terrified for a moment that she would say she’d been cheating on him. Ted didn’t want to think it possible, that she wouldn’t do that to him, but she did it to Sam. “And I was an asshole who still sucks with feelings. I was a dick to you, to everyone. I still am-”

“But you’re trying! You’re trying to be better!” she cried.

“Are you cheating on me?” he asked.

“Oh heavens no! I- oh you’ll never trust me, will you?” Charlotte said, breaking out into new tears.

“Shit. No no, that’s not- that’s not what I meant. I’ve been a little concerned a few times but I didn’t think you’d do that now that you’re happier. You are happier, right?” Ted asked.

She nodded, wiping at her tears. “I have someone to go home to every night, what more could I ask for?”

“Then what’s the big deal? We’re fine!” Ted said, instantly knowing that probably wasn’t the right thing to say.

“Because Sam wants to kill us!” she sobbed. “He wants to kill you for taking me! He’s going to kill you and it’s all my fault!”

Jesus Christ sometimes Ted wished he’d been taught how to talk about feelings as a child. Instead he’d been taught that guys were supposed to be assholes who didn’t have feelings at all. Things had been fine until his mom died when he was ten, but when it was just him and his dad? Well, his dad hadn’t been a great male role model. Ted had been working for years to unlearn shit he’d gotten from his dad growing up, and he was honestly trying his best to be more like Paul was with Emma, but Paul grew up being taught how to deal with shit. 

Ted was taught to use his words like knives and to turn to fists the second things started going south, no matter what the problem was. You couldn’t hit a woman to make her stop crying, you shouldn’t hit anyone, especially not someone you loved. He was trying to be better with his words, better with his temper. Nothing on earth could ever make him hurt Charlotte, nothing. He wasn’t his father. Still, he had no idea how to help Charlotte feel better without continuing to fuck up the situation further.

“Char, I love you,” he said slowly as he gently squeezed her shoulder. Good start, good start. Keep it up. “We’ve both fucked up a shit ton.” Maybe a bit too much swearing but the message stands. “You slept around because you were sad. Sam was a shit husband who didn’t deserve you. Agreeing to do stuff with you is on me, not you. I’m a grown ass man, it’s not your responsibility to make decisions for me. I pursued you even though I knew you were married, I continued even when I knew you wouldn’t leave him for me. That’s not on you, alright? And you didn’t kill Sam, I did. Don’t feel bad about what happened with the getting rid of him thing, that bullshit wasn’t on you.”

Charlotte sniffled and rubbed her tears away. Good, an improvement. That might have been the right thing to say. “I shouldn’t have done what I did,” she whispered. “He might still be alive if I hadn’t been such a bad wife.”

“He cheated on you first, he was a dick to you and he never gave you the attention you needed and deserve. He was a bad husband, and you deserved better. I don’t regret killing him to save your life, not one bit. Maybe you were a bad wife, but I was an asshole too, to you, to everyone. You deserved better than me, probably still do,” Ted said, brushing a new tear away.

Charlotte laughed a sad laugh and looked down. “We must deserve each other then, don’t we?”

Ted kissed her head and put their foreheads together, holding her gently, like she was the most precious thing in the world. “Yeah, maybe we do.”

\---

Bill sat on his stool at the island, trying to go over the numbers in front of him. It was Monday night, he had to get the work done by Wednesday or face Mr. Davidson’s wrath. Still, it was hard to focus as the sound of children running and laughing echoed through the house around him. Ever since the whole ghost thing started, he’d been seeing the ghosts of children at night, but only when Alice wasn’t there.

It was crazy, because he didn’t really know any children who had died recently, but they were there nevertheless, specifically when his mind wandered to thoughts of that day, and thoughts of Alice. He knew it was probably connected, and that he should probably talk to someone about it, but it seemed silly. Bill didn’t know who the spirits were, he had no connection to them. He had no idea why they were in his house! But they were, and God, every time he heard them he thought of his little girl, standing there dead on her feet while she sang something awful to him.

They never spoke to him, rarely did they even pay him any attention at all. Occasionally they would freeze and face him, their eyes boring into him like it was Judgement Day. Through their eyes he knew he’d failed her, he’d failed Alice. Yeah, she was alive again, but that didn’t change the scars on her arms from where the infected had scratched her, it didn’t change that she’d died. All summer he’d looked at those scars, those symbols of his failure, and struggled to hold it together. His baby girl was permanently damaged because he wasn’t a good enough father.

Bill remembered when she was born, holding her in his arms for the first time. She’d cooed and grabbed onto his finger like her life depended on it, and where was he when it had? He was twenty when she was born, he and his ex-wife had been dating since high school and happy accidents happen. As soon as he’d heard, he’d dropped everything to be a father. He took time off college to help raise her and make money for the family until his ex finished college and could get a full time job, then he returned to follow his own dreams

Alice had always come first, she would always come first. She was the best thing that had ever happened to him, and he failed her so terribly that she was possessed and forced to kill him. How was he supposed to face her every day knowing that? How was he supposed to move on from that memory? The infant in his arms, the teenager with the shotgun. He made her into that. He was the reason she died. He-

“Daaad! I’m home!” Alice called as she closed the front door behind her and took off her boots.

Bill cleared his throat and took a sip of his brandy. There was nowhere they had to go that night, so a bit of brandy was acceptable, especially considering the circumstances. “Hey, glad you’re home,” he said, realizing the way he spoke probably said he had drank more than a little.

Alice frowned as she walked over, taking her hat off and sitting it on the counter. “Have you been drinking?”

“Not much, it’s fine,” Bill assured. He was fucking it all up again, wasn’t he? He was going to ruin everything for Alice again and she was going to die again and he would never get her-

“Why?” she asked, gently picking up the brandy and putting it away.

He sighed, collapsing under the strain the last few weeks had placed on him, and rubbed his face. “I’ve been seeing ghosts.”

Alice froze before slowly turning to look at him. “What ghosts? Who?” she asked cautiously.

Bill sighed again because God, now he was worrying her, that was the last thing he wanted to do, and look what he’d done. “I don’t know. I don’t know who they are. They’re just children. Little kids, maybe about six or seven. They run around and laugh or they stare at me like they know what I did, but only when you aren’t here.”

“What did you do?” she asked, taking his hand in hers.

“I’m the reason you died. I’m the reason you went to the school that day, I’m the reason you were so scared and then you died and I wasn’t there to help you and then you sang all those terrible things and I just wanted-” Bill cursed his loose tongue when drinking, but he couldn’t stop the tears that were falling, or how hoarse he was becoming from his emotion.

“You wanted… what…?” she asked.

Bill didn’t want her to know this, any of this, she was never supposed to know. “I wanted to join you. I couldn’t go on knowing that you hated me, that I was the reason you died. Paul stopped me! Paul tried to help but-”

“How did you die that day, Dad?” Alice asked, her tone so serious and sad.

“You,” he said, his voice more of a sob than a word.

Alice rushed around the counter to hug her father tightly, breaking into tears as well. “It wasn’t your fault. I never blamed you, I didn’t. My last thought was that I was sad we left things off the way we did that morning, I didn’t want to die with us fighting being the last big thing that happened. That, and Deb and Grace. I was so sad I couldn’t save Deb and Grace. I don’t want you blaming yourself anymore, alright? Not one bit. It was my fault I died, every part of it. I chose to go to the school, I chose to stand between them and the door. That’s all on me.”

“But you died,” Bill cried, holding his baby girl as tightly as he could without breaking her. “You died, I should have protected you, I should have-”

“It is my life to live, Dad, you can’t protect me from myself. I decided to go down protecting people I care about, that was my decision to make. I am gonna die someday, hopefully a day a long time in the future, where you don’t have to see, but if I die before then it isn’t your fault, it isn’t. You’re the best dad I could ask for, I love you,” Alice said.

He could hear the tears in her voice, but it was okay. They were going to be okay. Alice was there, and she wasn’t going anywhere. She didn’t blame him, and maybe in time he wouldn’t blame himself either. “I love you too.”

“If you ever feel like that again, like you did that day, you call me, or Uncle Paul, alright? And I want you to go to therapy. This has been going on way too long, you can’t keep living like this,” Alice ordered as she pulled away, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“I’ll set up a meeting in the morning,” Bill agreed. He gave her a small smile and pulled her into another hug. “Everything is going to be alright.”

And it was. For the first night since it all started, the spirits of the children did not haunt him in the night, and he was able to sleep in peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said, long and sad. The Science Bois are good boys please don't hate them they are ocs of mine for a different story but fit well into this one and I needed scientists. Yes they are Gay. Yes they are in love. No they do not realize that.
> 
> Alice had been out with the Teen Gang before coming home. The information about the ghosts Bill saw will go to them.


	14. All Sounds and Sights Unseen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Teen Gang attempts to find out what is happening and make a plan of any kind. Emma says "fuck yeah go teenage rebellion". Xander is not doing well and John has a conversation with his dead adoptive father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words ao3 says aren't spelled correctly: PEIP, Lex, Ectoplasm, Xander. Words I use a LOT in this story: PEIP, Lex, Ectoplasm, Xander. So much red, so much red. Ah well, it happens. Halloween is almost here, hurray! This chapter is also slightly longer than I meant it to be.
> 
> If you can name the song every chapter title from both fics comes from I will fulfill a prompt you give me, as long as it is something I can get myself to write, so no smut or anything like that.
> 
> Warnings! Alice mentions what happened with Bill on the Apotheosis in the first scene, Wilbur uses really bad grammar that fits his usual way of speaking and such it just always bothers me anyway, talk of possession.

Lex did not like working at Toy Zone, but she did like the extra cash it gave her. Tom said that with the money she’d saved up before, that if she helped pay for the expenses of insurance and gas, he would be happy to make up the difference for her to get her own car for her birthday. That was Sunday, and they’d gone a few times on the weekends to look at what she would want. They were going to get a used car and fix it up together while he taught her how to drive. By the time she had her license the car would be in great condition because they worked together.

So she put up with working a few hours after school at Toy Zone, especially when she could meet up with her friends afterwards at a restaurant. Nothing made her hungrier than working retail did, though she’d sneak food while on the job. She didn’t work long enough to get a break after all (though she doubted Frank would give her one if she did), so contraband food was worth it until she could meet up for dinner with the gang.

They’d begun calling themselves a gang as a placeholder for when they decided a cooler name, considering they weren’t a real gang, more of a gaggle than anything. She doubted anything Oliver, Grace, or Alice could be considered a real gang. Lex wondered sometimes how she ended up being friends with such goody goodies, but then they’d go back to talking about hacking into government servers and she would remember. They were rule following Nice People from the middle class, yeah, but they had their oddities, and none of them were straight. It was cool to have friends other than just Ethan, and she knew Ethan agreed.

“Lex! Ethan! Over here!” Grace called, waving at them enthusiastically from their table.

Perkins wasn’t the best restaurant, but it wasn’t the worst either. It usually wasn’t so busy that the gang would be a bother, which was great because bothering the staff at any establishment was the last thing they wanted to do. Lex and Ethan sat down at the table where Oliver, Alice, and Grace were already sitting, with Alice’s laptop on the table where Deb was on screen. She was still grounded, though for a different offense than earlier in the month, and was unable to come in person, so a video chat was the best she could do.

“Hey, Nerds,” Lex said as she took off her coat. “What’s up with you all?”

“Just waiting for you two!” Alice replied with a smile.

Ethan ruffled his cousin’s hair, much to Oliver’s displeasure, and asked, “Did you guys order drinks for us?”

“Yep! Ollie, tell them what you saw when you were digging last night,” Grace said.

“I- well, it seems that there is green fuzz located within the ectoplasm found to be created by the ghosts,” Oliver stated, pushing his glasses up his nose.

“Green fuzz?” Ethan asked.

Oliver nodded. “They don’t know what it is yet, but they figured out that the ectoplasm doesn’t like electricity, and that was how they found the fuzz.”

“Could the fuzz be from the Big Bad we theorized is out there?” Alice suggested.

The waitress came by with their drinks, and they halted their conversation for a moment as she handed them each their beverage of choice. While they didn’t particularly care if other people heard, since they would think they were joking around or crazy, they didn’t want to draw more attention to themselves than necessary. If the adults in their lives knew what they were up to, they’d probably get upset, and they didn’t want to cause more stress. They ordered their food and the waitress left quickly.

Lex sipped on her soda before shrugging and saying, “It’s possible. It makes sense. The electricity thing is good to know though, if the ghosts themselves are also weak to the stuff. It could be our way of stopping them.”

“Electricity is dangerous,” Deb said from the computer. “Like, duh, but seriously. You need to see how strong the shock is that stopped the ghosts, see if it’s dangerous to people. We don’t want to make something that shocks people and then just be killing the people we’re trying to save.”

“Did it say how high the voltage was?” Ethan asked.

Oliver nodded and pulled out his notebook. “I’ve been writing stuff down, pen and paper, so we can add it to the board of Things We Know.” The board of Things We Know was actually a poster board from an old project that was converted into their own mystery board, which they added notes of all the clues they had to and was currently located in Ethan’s trunk. “I don’t know much about electricity but the notes said something about 5 mA? It’s important to note it is referring to goo in a glass dish.”

“The danger of electricity relies on a few factors, mostly the strength of the current and how resistant the thing being shocked was. At 5 mA a person can usually be fine, but a semi-liquid in a dish would not have enjoyed it,” Lex stated.

“How do you know that?” Grace asked, more confused as to how Lex just knew electricity facts than anything.

Lex shrugged. “I was really good in shop class, and I’ve been learning stuff alongside my dad while he takes his college classes online for engineering.”

“Ohhh,” Grace said. “That makes so much more sense. But, what if it doesn’t have a body at all? Can’t the current not go through it? And how do we make a weapon with electricity, do we just get tasers?”

“You can’t taser something that doesn’t have a body,” Alice said, rolling her eyes.

Grace rolled her eyes back at Alice and replied, “Then how are we supposed to fight ghosts? Salt?”

Lex heard someone clear their throat and realized her Vaguely Aunt, Emma, and her boyfriend were standing there listening to them. “Oh hey, Aunt Emma,” she said, hoping the woman hadn’t heard the whole ‘fighting ghosts’ thing.

“Hey, Lex. What’s this about fighting ghosts?” Emma asked, raising an eyebrow with a slight smile.

Goddammit.

“Well, we want to protect ourselves from the ghosts that keep showing up at Lex’s place,” Ethan lied smoothly. “We got some friends together to help.”

Emma nodded, clearly not buying it. “And how did you know about the electricity?”

“Who are you?” Grace asked, quickly changing the topic while Oliver went pale. “Ollie, drink your hot chocolate, your blood sugar’s dropping.”

Oliver did so, more to hide his face from possibly getting in trouble than because his blood sugar was dropping.

“I’m Emma Perkins-”

“As in Perkins the restaurant which we are currently located in oh my god are you restaurant royalty?” Grace asked cheerfully.

“I- no. There’s no relation between me and Perkins, the restaurant which we are currently located within. Paul and I just didn’t want to cook tonight and we like the way they make their breakfast food,” she explained. “I’m Lex’s… adoptive dad’s sister-in-law? So I’m kind of her aunt even though she never met my sister.”

“Well she has now!” Deb said from the screen, only to receive a glare from the woman.

“So you kids hacked into PEIP, my employer, for information about what’s going on in an attempt to find a way to fix the situation, am I right?” Emma asked, only to be met with silent teens who refused to meet her eye. “Great. PEIP’s a little fucked at the moment because the science division’s boss is… sick… so we’ve been way slowed down in our work. In any other situation you all would be in big trouble, but since we’re fucked right now I’ll give you a little advice, because fuck yeah teenage rebellion, fighting the bad things instead of leaving it to the adults.”

“Emma, is this a good idea?” Paul asked.

“Hi, Uncle Paul,” Alice said with a wave. “Dad told me about what happened during the Apotheosis. Thanks for looking out for him and sorry I shot him right in front of you. I want to make sure nothing like that happens again.”

Paul paled at that and took a step back so Emma could take charge again. Lex gave Alice a confused look, but accepted that there was Lore there that she was unaware of. Fair enough, after all, they hadn’t been friends back then. She knew Grace, Deb, and Alice had been together when they were infected, and that Alice’s scars came from that day, but she didn’t know much else about it. They’d only become friends when they were some of the first teens cured and had to hang out together.

“The ghosts aren’t just haunting everyone and anyone, they’re targeting people who are ‘haunted’ by something. Like how Tom is so upset about Jane that she is running around your house,” Emma explained.

“Like how my mom shows up around the same time she would come home drunk every night,” Lex said quietly.

“Like how my dad kept seeing the ghosts of children. He was haunted by the memory of the Apotheosis, but he hasn’t seen the ghosts since we talked through it,” Alice said.

Paul seemed to do a double take. “I’m sorry? Ghost kids?”

Alice nodded. “Ghost kids. They’d go away whenever I was around, so I didn’t know about them until he told me last night.”

“Excuse me for a moment,” Paul said, pulling out his phone and walking out of the restaurant.

Emma watched him go for a moment before turning back to the kids. “Right! Fuck yeah, teenage rebellion. Even if you can’t figure out a way to stop something we don’t understand, you all deserve to know what’s happening so you can prepare for Halloween. See you at your birthday party this weekend, Lex. I gotta…” she trailed off for a moment, looking in the direction Paul went off in, “... go…” With that she left the confused teens behind as the waitress brought their food.

\---

“Xander?” a voice- John, John asked.

With the lights and the energy shining down on them, John looked like some sort of angel in silhouette. Xander smiled a bit and brushed a hand through John’s beautiful hair, beautiful even after going into the Black and White. He was getting worse, progressively, quickly, actively worse. Monday it was problems remembering what work was being done, now only a few days later he was struggling to remember certain things even more. It was hard to remember anything in particular when he could feel the portal constantly pulling on his soul, drawing it to where it belonged. He wondered if spirits inside it had memory problems, or if that was just a him thing.

“Xander, can you hear me?” John asked again.

Xander blinked hard, realizing he’d drifted off again, back into the trance of the energy pulling on him. “Yeah,” he finally said, letting his hand rest on his chest once more.

John didn’t look happy about that, or appear to believe him, and Xander chalked that up to the fact that even he could tell he sounded out of it. “What is your name?” John asked, squeezing Xander’s hand.

He blinked hard, still struggling to stay present and not fall back into the daze brought by the energy and the portal. “I-... John?” he said, then realized that wasn’t the question being asked. “You’re John.”

His husband got that sickened look on his face as he nodded. “I’m John. What is your name?” he repeated, and God, that terrified look in his eye couldn’t be covered up by his ‘work voice’ in the slightest.

“Xander,” Xander said, closing his eyes in an attempt to block out the overwhelming sight of the energy from the portal.

“What day is it?” John asked, running a hand through Xander’s short hair.

Fuck, how was he supposed to know that? He knew he was supposed to know that, it was a reasonable thing to know, but the idea of knowing it was beyond him at the moment. “October,” he finally answered, giving up on getting any closer to the correct date.

“Do you know what the date is?” John asked.

Xander shook his head ever so slightly. “Late October. Next week is Halloween.”

John paused, seeming to be deciding whether to accept that answer or not. After a moment he said, “It’s October 24th. Do you know where we are?”

Portal. They were near the portal. That was a good hint. “Work? Portal room.”

“Who is the president?” John asked, clearly deciding that was a good enough answer.

“Howie the Himbo,” Xander said with a snicker. He was still feeling dazed, like he would fall back down at any second, but he was slightly more present now.

John did not verbally react to that statement, which Xander understood. It was a serious situation. It was just so hard to focus on anything, being serious was not something he could concentrate on being. “What are three items on our mantle at home?”

What was on the mantle? He had to mentally picture the thing in an attempt to remember before finally saying, “Wedding pictures... Wilbur’s funeral flag… boy scouts badges.”

“What do you last remember?” John concluded, stroking through Xander’s hair once more.

Xander shrugged, genuinely unable to pinpoint a specific moment in time where he had total clarity. “Monday. Meeting with Pavel. Last solid thing. Everything is hazy, some things more than others.”

“Jesus Christ, Xander, why didn’t you say anything?” John asked, pulling Xander into his arms where he remained limp but breathing.

“You’d worry,” Xander mumbled.

John took a long breath and sighed just as long. He couldn’t see him, with his eyes still closed, but he felt safe in his husband’s arms no matter how hard it was to get his limbs to move. They would figure it out, John would figure it out. Everything would be alright.

“My my my, what’s goin’ on here?” a familiar voice asked from behind him.

“Leave us, Wilbur,” John growled, holding onto Xander even tighter.

“Do you even know what’s wrong with him? I can tell ya if you’d like,” Wilbur said. It felt as though the man was kneeling right beside them.

John growled again, saying, “Leave! Your tainting madness does not have a place in the current situation.”

“Au contraire, Johnny, I can tell ya what’s wrong with your husband. I can probably even fix him for ya. You just gotta give me permission to possess you, Xander, and I can make all this bad stuff go away,” Wilbur stated, reaching out and placing a hand on Xander’s shoulder.

“You aren’t like the other ghosts, you have a physical presence in this reality, you cannot possess him,” John said, pulling Xander out of his dead father’s hold.

“I can possess, just like any of the others. I’m just stronger than them, I don’t need to wait until Halloween. And believe me, if I don’t possess your man, somebody else will. On Halloween, they’re gonna take their chance and steal any body that’s weak enough to take the sleeping and the like. The only way they can stay here after the first of November is by having a body after all. Xander here is in far too rough a shape to be able to get by without being possessed.

“His soul isn’t in his body right. See, when you returned his soul to this reality, it was like thowin’ one of those children’s wood shapes at the board it came from and expecting it to land perfectly in its hole. That shit don’t work, Johnny, I’m sorry. Xander needs somebody or somethin’ to shake the board until the shape goes in its hole, and ya can’t do that without possession. Those other ghosts won’t try and save Xander, they’ll just want his body. Xander’s my son-in-law, I’ll actually do shit right by him. I don’t need his body after all, I’m just as physical as I’d like to be,” Wilbur concluded.

“What’s in it for you?” John growled.

“We need the top scientists of the Black and White on the top of his game come Wiggly’s big day. Can’t have that if he’s dead or possessed. Y’all won’t do what we want ya to do if you don’t have Xander there to do things right. So we’re on the same side here, aren’t we, Johnny? I get my pawn placed back on the chessboard, you get your husband back. He wasn’t supposed to be this fucked over. We wanted you to retrieve him but we didn’t want this,” Wilbur said, placing a hand on Xander’s shoulder again.

God, Xander wished he was in any way capable of taking part in the discussion, but he’d lost his fight against the daze once more, and he was unable to do anything more than listen passively. John seemed to realize that, and adjusted his hold on Xander to one that was more comfortable for them both as he glared at Wilbur. Xander trusted John to make the right decision, no matter what that decision happened to be.

“Xander isn’t anyone’s pawn,” John said firmly.

Wilbur shrugged and took his hand away. “I’ll let ya think on it for a few days. I’ll come back when you see you’ve got no choice, really. You let me possess him and fix what you did, or he’s gone forever. It’s your choice, Johnny, but again, there isn’t really a choice, is there?”

With that Wilbur seemed to disappear, or that’s what Xander could assume happened because John suddenly released the tension in his body, holding Xander more gently. He whispered softly to him, things Xander’s couldn’t get his mind to focus on, until he’d succumbed to the pull of sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GHOSTS GHOSTS GHOSTS! POSSESSION TIME IS ALMOST UPON US! WHO WILL BE POSSESSED? WHO WILL BE LEFT TRYING TO SURVIVE? Tune in tomorrow for Lex's Sweet 19th Birthday and more ghost stuff probably.


	15. Mend What's Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paul and Bill have a long hug. Tom contemplates his relationship with Becky and the ghost of his wife. Lex isn't too bummed about her birthday being messed up by ghosts. John debates the positives and negatives about taking Wilbur's deal, and thinks about what has become of his adoptive father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A normal sized chapter! I was very tired when writing this, sorry for any mistakes! Next chapter will be the beginning of Halloween, it might take a few chapters to get through the whole thing, though, depending. Also! The first scene in this chapter happens the same day as the last chapter.
> 
> Also also! For those wondering, Dr. Pavel Volkov would be played by Brian Rosenthal and Dr. Ermolai Orlov would be played by Brian Holden.
> 
> The chapter title challenge is still happening! If you can name every song each chapter in these stories comes from, I'll fulfill a prompt for you set in this universe! The longer we go the more chapters there are to name.
> 
> Warnings! Mentions of cancer and death in the first scene, mentions of consent as it pertains to possession in the last scene.

“Paul, you really didn’t have to-” Bill was cut off by Paul hugging him tightly in the doorway of his home.

After hearing from Alice what had been going on, Paul had called Bill to get the information from him. He drove Alice home from Perkins and as soon as he got the car turned off he was rushing up the steps to see Bill. If he’d known Bill was having such a rough time, if he’d known any of this was going on, the ghost children, the flashbacks, Paul would have stepped in immediately. Unfortunately, Bill hadn’t wanted to worry him, and now instead he was incredibly worried.

When he went to that accounting class in his second semester of college, he hadn’t expected the guy he was forced to sit beside to end up becoming his best friend. He was 18, and his great aunt was beginning to decline in health, what they would eventually find out to be breast cancer, and the classroom was filled to the brim by the time he got there. Paul wasn’t exactly an outgoing guy, he wasn’t good at making friends or talking to people, so he preferred not to sit next to anyone, but there was only one end seat left and it happened to be beside a guy who was definitely not 18.

Still, the guy was actually incredibly friendly, offering him advice and a pencil when his own rolled away and he got too nervous to get out a new one. He said his name was Bill, and that he was returning after a break from school to take care of his daughter. Bill always said that he’d known the moment he laid eyes on Paul that he’d known he was a kid who needed somebody in his life, somebody to be there for him. He was right, of course, and he had continued trying to befriend Paul until he succeeded by making him Alice’s official babysitter.

His Great Aunt got sicker, and Bill helped Paul out by taking him back and forth from the hospital to the school, helped him get groceries and made sure he was eating. When Aunt Patricia died, Bill offered Paul the extra room in his house for when school was out or they were on break, and that was when they became brothers. When Bill and his wife were at work, Paul was there taking care of Alice, making dinner for everyone. He and Bill would do their homework together and help each other out. They were family, through bond but family nevertheless.

Paul, even with his issues with social interactions, knew the divorce was coming before it happened. He knew years before everything erupted and hadn’t been the least bit surprised. At that point, he hadn’t been living with them for years, not since Bill helped him get a job for CCRP Technical, but he was over at their place enough to see the tensions growing.

They had been high school sweethearts, Bill and his wife, and they’d gotten married fairly quickly after graduation. When Alice came along, Bill let her talk him into holding off on his goals in life so she could graduate college on time and get into her chosen career. He’d taken four years out of college in order to take care of Alice after already taking time off in order to work and afford their wedding. Even after that, he made sacrifice after sacrifice for his wife, and Paul watched every one of them pull Bill further and further down, making him more and more frustrated until he was bound to explode. That explosion happened when his wife got a new job in Clivesdale and decided the family was going to move there.

Bill hadn’t been able to take it anymore, he didn’t want to leave his job or his family (Paul) alone in Hatchetfield. He didn’t want to sacrifice himself and his own goals for her after years of doing so without her doing the same even once. Still, he loved her, he hadn’t had what it took to fight her during the divorce, not even for Alice. He gave and gave and gave everything he had to her and she took the last bit of happiness he had left. Paul had been there to help him pick up the pieces afterwards, but there was only so much that he could do.

Of course, after the Apotheosis, Alice got her wish and moved in with Bill again, went back to her old school and both of them were much happier. At least, that was what Paul had thought. He wasn’t even hurt that Bill hadn’t told him what was happening, just incredibly worried. Bill was his family, his brother, the only one he really had in the world besides Emma, of course he worried about him.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Paul asked, hugging Bill tightly still.

“Can I please close the door? The cold air is getting in,” Bill replied, waving a bit at Emma who was standing behind Paul.

Emma closed the door behind them so Paul didn’t have to let go of Bill, and started taking her hat and coat off. “We’re staying for a few hours.”

“That’s not really necessary,” Bill sighed. “I’m fine. I have my first appointment with the therapist tomorrow. I’m okay. The ghosts haven’t bothered me since Alice and I talked.”

“You should have told me,” Paul said as Emma took his scarf off of him from behind.

“I didn’t want to worry you. It just…”

“Kept getting worse and worse progressively driving you more down a path of grief and depression to the point that you were looking for relief wherever it might come from?” Emma asked.

Bill was silent for a moment before finally hugging Paul back. “Maybe.”

“That’s my theory as to the point of the ghosts at all. Whatever is coming is trying to make the emotionally vulnerable even weaker. You aren’t the only one suffering from all that. If the ghosts haven’t come back, you must have settled whatever was haunting you, so they don’t have that weak spot to poke anymore,” Emma explained.

“How do you know all that?” Bill asked.

Emma shrugged and said, “I work for PEIP, don’t I? My boss is a resident Sherlock Holmes. I've learned a lot from him.”

Paul finally let go with one final squeeze. “So Bill will be okay?”

“Ehh, we can’t be sure anyone is going to be okay, he just isn’t a target anymore,” Emma said.

“Comforting,” Bill teased.

\---

Tom was trying, he was trying desperately to act like nothing was wrong, like everything was fine when it most certainly wasn’t. It was Lex’s birthday, they were having a party by the lake because it was still warm enough to do so. October 27th was an important day for their family due to the fact that it was the first birthday Lex was ever actually going to really celebrate, but all Tom could think about was Jane. Lex had told him over and over that it wasn’t her, that it was a trick to make him upset, but Tom just couldn’t believe that.

He was at war with himself, because half of him wanted to move on, to be with Becky and to accept Jane was truly dead, but the other half wondered if Jane had a way she could possibly come and live again. It wasn’t fair to Becky to think like that, but the entire situation wasn’t fair to him. A fair world wouldn’t have the spirit of his wife coming into his home every night and calling him the nickname only she called him. A fair world wouldn’t have killed Jane in the first place.

Maybe she did have to die, to save everyone and everything, but Tom wasn’t sure he wanted to believe that there was a plan for them, and that the plan said she needed to be taken from them. He still felt blame for that night, no matter how many times he was told it wasn’t his fault. How could he let it go, like Lex told him to do? How could he move on? How could he accept a reality where she was never coming home, especially when she was returning there every night as a spirit?

At the same time, he was spending more time with Becky. They’d gone out to eat together once or twice since they had their talk in Hidgen’s kitchen, and held hands as they talked about the future, about anything that came to mind. In those moments of quiet bliss, Tom was truly happy for the first time in a long time. He loved his kids, of course, and he was happy when he was around them, but the weight of the world disappeared when Becky gave him that smile, looking up at him with her big eyes in the moonlight. 

Tom could see a future with her, with them as a family. He could see a world where they had always been together, where he hadn’t gone away to war and came back hollow. But Jane was there, calling to him from beyond the grave. Was that cheating? Could you cheat on a dead person? Tom didn’t think that was a thing, but he felt the guilt nevertheless. He was worrying his kids, which was probably the worst part. They kept telling him that it wasn’t Jane, that Jane was gone and this was an echo of her, that he needed to move on, but how could he let go? He didn’t know how.

“That car sure is gonna need some work, huh,” Becky asked, gesturing to Lex’s birthday gift. “That’ll be a fun project for you two. Lex looked so excited about it.”

Tom shook himself from his thoughts and smiled a bit at Becky. “Oh yeah, she’s all about it. Lex was one of my best students, she loves to work with her hands. It’s good for her to know how cars work anyway. She wants to work for PEIP, and you never know the kinds of information you’ll need as a field agent, from what I’ve heard,” he agreed.

“Oh you have no idea. Have you started teaching her how to drive?” Becky asked.

“She already knew some ‘cause of Ethan, but she’s got her learner’s permit and I’ve been teaching her more seriously,” he said. “I’m so proud of how far she’s come. When I first met her she was an angry teen who felt like the world was against her, now here she is wanting to get an education so she can defend it.”

“She’s been lucky to have you as a father,” Becky said.

“I’ve been lucky to have you to help me,” Tom replied.

They fell silent, listening to the children playing and the teens laughing further back where the party was happening. The sun was setting, and Tom wondered whose ghost would show up first, his or hers, but concluded that it didn’t particularly matter because they would be haunted either way. Neither wanted to end the party too soon though, given the amount of fun the others were having. It was a good day, a happy day. Why did he still feel so cold inside?

Tom looked over at her, watching the way the light played on her face as she stared out at the water. “You look just as beautiful as the day we met,” he said quietly.

Becky looked at him, a bit startled, but smiled. “You don’t. Not at all.”

“Gee thanks,” he said with a laugh, looking down at his hands.

She gently guided his face back to look at her with her hand and stroked his cheek with her thumb. “That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You’re so different than we were, we both are, but you’re still you, deep down. You’re still Tom Houston, the sweetest asshole Hatchetfield High ever saw.”

“And you’re still the kindest person to ever grace these streets,” he said in return, giving her a small, sad smile.

God, he wanted to kiss her. Between her words and the way the light was fading, he didn’t think he’d ever wanted to kiss anyone as much as he did in that moment, but he couldn’t be sure. Was he ever sure of anything? Tom knew he loved Becky, that he always had, but that it didn’t mean that he loved Jane any less. Jane would want him to be happy, right? She had always been about that sort of thing, she would forgive him.

“You make me feel whole again,” Becky said quietly, squeezing his hand.

Tom cupped her cheek gently and looked deep into her gentle eyes, whispering, “ You make me forget I was ever broken in the first place.”

They both leaned forward, eyes fluttering closed as their lips met. It wasn’t their usual stolen kiss in the absence of others, it was slow and sure. It was a statement, a declaration. There was little more painful than loving someone so deeply and the world seeming to be against your relationship with them, but in that moment the pain and grief was behind them. They were alright, they were safe and loved by the person they were with, even if they dared not speak those words aloud. 

A screech rang out through the shore, causing everyone to fall silent. Jane was floating above the water, pointing at Tom and Becky in an accusatory manner. The wind around them began to pick up as the air chilled. Around the clearing, the trees groaned from the force of the wind, causing the others to huddle together in order to protect the children from the flying debris. Near them, a tree lost its fight with gravity and came down within feet of Becky before everything suddenly went still and silent.

\---

Lex wasn’t too bummed that her party ended in a ghost attack, really. It was the first real party she’d had and she’d enjoyed the time she’d spent with friends and family, along with the gifts they’d given her. That was enough, truly, considering all the crazy that was going on, she was just glad no one had gotten hurt. Jane had clearly gotten upset with Tom, and the tree landed really close to them, which only made Lex more nervous.

Tom hadn’t spoken since the event, other than to apologize and say it was time to go home, which everyone accepted. She knew that the whole thing wouldn’t change his stance on the ghosts, since he likely would blame himself. It was frustrating at times, just how caught up in his grief he was, too blinded by sadness and love that he couldn’t see the glaring problems with Jane’s ghost. She couldn’t be too hard on him though, every time she saw her mom, she would be filled with the same dread she was filled with every time she saw the woman in life.

Given everything she knew about the ghosts and the theories they had about what was happening, she was nervous for her adoptive father, but she and Ethan had concluded that there was nothing that could be done. They would prepare for Halloween as best as they could to protect him and themselves. Tom needed their help this time, and they were happy to give it, whether or not he was aware he was getting it in the first place.

\---

“Xan, Honey, you need to eat,” John said quietly, holding the bowl in his hands.

Xander, of course, had not responded. His responsiveness had declined over the last few days, leaving him in a constant daze of some sort, which prompted John to put him in the hospital so they could watch over him. It was growing harder to get him to react to anything, including a spoon with soup directly in front of his face. John might hate the substance, but it was usually the easiest thing to get Xander to eat when he was unwell.

This was all his fault. John knew it, he knew he was the reason Xander was in this state. The closer they got to Halloween, the more Xander’s condition deteriorated. His soul wasn’t in his body correctly, and with the growing strength of the spirits, his own fought against the vessel it was sloppily placed in, wanting to go to the spiritual energy coming from the Black and White instead. John didn’t know how he could have placed him back in his body the right way, not with the state he’d been in after returning.

He replayed the event over and over in his head, trying to find a way he could have done it right, but he always came up empty. None of the solutions John proposed could ever be proven to succeed, and even if they had, he still would have placed the ghost problem onto the town. His goal in life was to make America a better place and to protect its fine citizens, but he’d failed that like he’d failed Xander.

No, he hadn’t failed anyone. Yes, John knew he made mistakes, and that they needed to be fixed, but there was still time to do so, there was still plenty of time. No part of him wanted to consider Wilbur’s offer. His adoptive father was not there anymore, the thing that had his memories and his appearance was twisted and gnarled into something else. When Wilbur’s suit ran out of power, Wiggly must have taken the pieces of his dissolving physical form and used it and his soul as a play thing before putting them back together in the way he liked best.

Wilbur was blank behind the eyes, there was no mirth there, no humor like John’s adoptive father had when he was alive. His eyes were blank, dead. Yes, he had his memories, but his personality had been toyed with like putty for thirteen years before being spat back out in a form that only shared fragments of the original. Wilbur was a toy that was played with too roughly until Wiggly got bored of it and decided to put it to another use. It wasn’t the ghost of his father, not really, because what had been his father was too far gone to be recognizable to anyone who knew him.

John didn’t trust his offer. Of course he didn’t. Trusting his offer was the worst possible thing he could do. That wasn’t his father, it was a little green fox with orders that John didn’t know. Trusting his offer would be akin to trusting a trickster god, a really quite frankly bad idea all around. Even if you know the motivation for a trickster’s actions, it can not be trusted that the motive you knew was the only one that existed. Sure, Wilbur told him his motive, but that didn’t mean shit.

Still, what choice did he have? That was how tricksters got someone, when they had no alternative as far as they could tell and needed to rely on the trickster for aid instead of someone helpful. John needed a way to save his husband, because he was growing more and more distant as time passed, but he had no way to do it without Wilbur. Schaeffer had suggested taking him out of town for a few days, but John couldn’t trust that his soul was settled enough that it could pass through the salt ring around the island. If not, it would make the situation much worse, and John had already caused enough problems by trying to fix things.

He wished Xander was coherent enough to give his advice, he needed it desperately, but the man remained as he had been, staring at the wall ahead of him, occasionally mumbling to himself. Moments of any kind of clarity were exciting and still happened often enough, but never long enough, and they were becoming fewer in number.

Ghosts as a whole did not need consent to possess people if they were strong enough, as they would be on Halloween, or at any time if consent was given. Wilbur wasn’t like the average ghost though, considering he had a physical aspect to him and was certainly more powerful than any of the others. John had a feeling he was too powerful to be pulled back into the Black and White after Halloween, but that did not mean he didn’t need consent from a ‘legal’ standpoint.

Just like anything, there were rules, and Wilbur was bound to them as a spirit. Xander was incapable of giving his consent though, given the situation, so that fell onto John then giving Wilbur consent to possess his husband and do God knows what. How could he do that to Xander? How could he refuse? Wilbur could do anything with his body when he possessed it, and John would be near powerless to stop him without damaging his husband in the process.

“John?” Xander asked quietly, his eyes now looking at John, so confused and disoriented.

It was painful, so painful to see his brilliant husband look so lost. “I’m here, Xan. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will have many a ghost. This story is gonna end up being so long, isn't it? We haven't even gotten to November yet.


	16. Do You Believe in Ghosts?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ghosts think about their 'loved ones' and what they're going to do to them. Wilbur has some Thoughts and possesses Xander.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooohhhh boy, okay, here we go. This chapter made me, the author, cry as I was writing it, so THAT'S what YOU ALL are in for today, can I get a wahoo? Seriously though, a tear RAN DOWN MY FACE!
> 
> Chapter title challenge is still happening, feel free to take part.
> 
> Warnings! So this whole chapter is uhhhh bad because the ghosts are twisted versions of themselves and some of them were already bad people to begin with, SO! For the chapter here are the warnings: mentions of domestic and child abuse, ableism, mentions of suicide (specifically someone possessing someone and killing the person they're possessing which is murder rather than suicide but from the outside no), mentions of murdering people, mentions of torture. I think that's everything? The ghosts have a lot of mean things to say about good characters also so there's that.

Jane was mad, she wasn’t sure she had ever been this mad before in her life, or afterlife. Not even two years after her death and he was already getting back with his ex?! The beautiful, wonderful, perfect Becky Barnes?! Of all the people in the world, he decided to get back together with the one woman Jane had ever felt jealous of. Did she mean anything to him? Did it matter? Clearly she didn’t mean enough if he was moving on after less than two years. Two years! He couldn’t even make it to two years before kissing his ex! Right in front of their son!

He needed to pay, he needed to suffer, he needed to die. So did Becky. Two birds with one stone didn’t seem so bad. If Tom only wanted Becky, she would become Becky, and when he was gone she would have her son back and he would love her again. She had no pull to him in this form, he had moved on so there was nothing left to grab onto, but Wiggly promised she could have him back if she did what she desired and killed her Tom. Yes, she knew Emma was set to be killed as well, but that was fine, she was the Heart, it was inevitable. 

Tom had cried so much, talked to her, begged her all month, but then he went and talked to Becky. She haunted his nights, his dreams, prevented him from sleeping, made him cry, made him beg, made him suffer but she would never be able to make him suffer enough to understand what she had gone through. It wasn’t enough, never enough. She had to kill him, Wiggly said it would make everything better, that she would have her son back and Tom would understand what he did to her.

Soon, the hour was drawing near. Soon she would have Becky Barnes and Tom would be dead.

\---

Sam was allowed to cheat on his wife. Why wouldn’t he be? She was boring and nerdy and ugly as sin, he got tired of her quickly after the wedding, though the sex had been great. Still, he grew bored of her, and had moved on to other play things, a fling here, an affair there, why not? Wasn’t it his right as a handsome cop who had the right to decide who lived or died? Of course it was. He was a man after all.

Charlotte wasn’t allowed to have affairs though, she wasn’t allowed to be with anyone but him, especially not when he wasn’t alive to fight for her. Sure, he didn’t want her, but she was his wife! His! No other man got to lay his hands on her, even if he didn’t, even if he was dead. Then some fucking tall nerd knocked his brain out of his head, and fucked his wife, and they lived together now. His wife. Got with. His Killer. Seriously? And he WASN’T supposed to get pissed off? They were scared of him? Good! She was a cheating skank who got with his murderer! He was the bitch who killed him, and then fucked his wife!

Sam genuinely didn’t know which of them he wanted to kill more, he could not decide. They both needed to die, obviously, and he would kill them both, but he couldn’t decide which was the better one to possess. On one hand, Charlotte was weak and gullible, possessing her wouldn’t be difficult at all. On the other, she was wheelchair bound now, and that would make killing Ted far harder. Plus, he didn’t know about possessing a woman, he didn’t know about all those parts they had. A man was something he understood. Fuck, he didn’t even want a body in the end of this, he would rather join their souls in the Black and White to torture them.

A murder suicide was in order and Sam couldn’t wait for the time to come. Maybe he’d enjoy being in a body a bit first, yeah, that sounded nice, then kill them both from the inside out.

\---

Martha had been a terrible mother to her daughters. She knew that, they knew that, everyone knew that. She was an addict to anything she came across, anything to escape the suffering in her soul. Martha knew she should have gone out and made a living, done what was necessary to give her girls the lives they deserved, but she hadn’t. As a result, Lex had been forced to step up to the plate and take care of Hannah.

God that fucking brat. Yeah yeah, she was special she was good she was autistic whatever. Hannah was fucking weird. No matter how much she screamed, she wouldn’t speak, and when she did speak it was the weirdest shit Martha had ever heard. No matter what Martha did, she couldn’t get Hannah to stop being fucking weird, all the fucking time. And Lex stood by it! Stood by her! Didn’t she understand? The kid had been fucked up since she nearly drowned her as a baby, and Lex just stood by her side. 

Wiggly said he could fix her girls, Wiggly said he could make them right and normal. All she had to do was kill them. That was no problem, she’d hit them enough in life that killing them in death wasn’t a big deal. She knew exactly who she wanted to possess though. That boyfriend of Lex’s, oh yes. He was harder for her to touch, she couldn’t get near him when he was awake, when she wasn’t at full strength, but it had to be him, didn’t it? He protected them, so he needed to be out of the way, and the only way he could be out of the way was to use him to do the job. Easy peasy.

\---

Becky Barnes was the hottest bitch in Hatchetfield and Stanley couldn’t wait to swoop in and snatch her up when her boyfriend left for war. It was fun, and she did what he said. Sure, he might have sent her to the hospital, maybe he’d gotten her so spooked she still jumped any time voices rose, but that was part of the fun, wasn’t it? He remembered being so angry when he was alive, now he was just malicious.

He could only get to her sometimes though. Half of the time she was just fine without him, she’d moved on, but sometimes when she was alone in that house with her thoughts, he could creep in, creep in and tear down the walls of safety she’d built around herself. Tom would come swooping in and he’d be unable to get anywhere close to them, much to Stanley’s frustration. And on top of that, he was an older spirit compared to most of the others, having been dead for over two years now, so he wasn’t as strong as the others. That meant Tom’s bitch of a wife had dibs.

Fine! Fine, Stanley would wait his turn. When Jane failed, he’d swoop in and fix the situation, save it for Wiggly. He’d kill Becky for daring to kill him, and he’d kill all of the little children Tom loved while possessing him, then let him go so he’d have to see what he’d done. It was going to be so much fun. And then, when Tom was broken from grief, he’d possess him again and keep the body for himself. How fun was that? Oh he was looking forward to this, he just had to bide his time.

\---

Zoey didn’t know what she did to deserve this. First she was infected by an alien hive mind, then she died, and was subject to mistreatment in the afterlife by the being that became her god. She knew she wasn’t a great person, but she didn’t think she was a bad one. Why did she have to be a puppet for one evil then another? When would she be allowed to rest? She didn’t want to live again, she didn’t want revenge, all she wanted was peace.

That peace seemed impossible though, with Wiggly using her. He wanted her to bother Emma when she was weakest, sure. He wanted her to kill Emma, sure, fine. Anything to be free, to be allowed to fade into nothingness in the Black and White like all spirits eventually did. Zoey worked with Emma long enough to know her weak spots, and Wiggly did half of the work for her, using her as almost a puppet to get under Emma’s skin.

A part of Zoey felt bad, she really did, but Emma was the reason she died in the first place, and Emma was the reason she wasn’t allowed to rest. Was killing her that wrong of a thing to do? She could bitch about it in the Black and White as much as she wanted. Zoey didn’t care. The only way she would be able to kill her though would be to possess her fucking Guardian. Why did she have to have a Guardian? Why couldn’t Zoey have been asked with getting at any of the normal people? Why did she have to be the one to push and kill Emma Perkins? In the end it didn’t matter, she would possess Emma’s boyfriend in his sleep and kill her. Wiggly said she could rest after that, and that's all that really mattered anymore.

\---

Wiley didn’t have any regrets, not one. That was because the ability to regret his actions had not been given to him by his master. He was given a task, and he would do the task to the best of his ability. Some parts of him remained, some memories still stuck to his soul and reminded him of who he was. For the most part, all he remembered was what Wiggly gave him, he was Wiggly’s creation and Wiggly was his god. He remembered Johnny though, his adoptive son who he nurtured into adulthood.

Were those memories gifted to him by Wiggly, or were they too deeply ingrained in his soul to remove? His mind said that Wiggly was all powerful and all knowing, but his heart was unsure. He remembered the day he promised Johnny he would always be there for him, he remembered the day he told him never to let someone tear down your soul, that you had to stay firm and face your foes head on. What was he doing now? Wiley was the force trying to crack John into pieces. He remembered the day John told him he was gay, the day John told him about Xander, the day he said goodbye. 

Johnny was in the way of Wiggly’s arrival, he had to get him out of the way, Wilbur knew he had to get him out of the way. You didn’t go against Wiggly, Wilbur wasn’t even sure he physically could if he wanted to. That want had been taken from him too. Wiley couldn’t even feel upset about it if he wanted to, all that existed was his servitude to Wiggly and there was no escape. Wiggly would rise with or without John’s continued existence. Wilbur… didn’t… want… to kill his son. That concept was dizzying, but it didn’t go against Wiggly and was therefore allowed, as long as John was out of the way.

All he had to do was make John unable to fight, to be willing to give in to Wiggly when the time came. Johnny boy could live, worshipping the one true god, and be happy still. Wiley just needed a way to break him enough to submit. Now, he had nothing against Xander, in fact he’d always thought him to be an upstanding man worthy of his son, but if the choice was between John and Xander, he’d pick his son. He was going to just let the man die, let him waste away so John would grieve and be susceptible to Wiggly’s influence. Wilbur had a lot to do after all, making sure everything would be fine for Black Friday, but… John was so sad, so desperate.

The sight of John hunched over a hospital bed, begging the love of his life to eat, to react to him in the slightest, it made Wilbur feel something. That deeply buried part of him where the memories of his son laid stirred to life at the sight. Wiley couldn’t disobey Wiggly, he couldn’t. But, surely they needed Xander, right? Surely they needed the genius behind the portal. Without Xander, PEIP wouldn’t dare send the president through the portal. And, besides that, the portal still needed to be repaired because Xander wasn't up to doing it! How were they supposed to get the president without the portal working correctly?!

“Johnny, you’re out of time. What’s your choice?” Wilbur said as he manifested himself in the hospital room, leaning against the wall.

“Out of time?” John asked, breathing in like he’d been awoken from a slight doze. He checked his watch and swore, seeing it was minutes from midnight.

“Don’t tell me you were sleeping sitting up. You better not try sleeping again until the day. Even with them as strong as they are, they can’t go out in the light without a body,” Wilbur warned. “Now, you want me to possess your husband or want? We’ve got three minutes.”

John sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Wilbur remembered when Johnny cut it short because of the bullies, and how he’d grown out his own hair in solidarity for years after. If he wasn’t already dead, Wilbur was sure Wiggly was going to kill him. He could feel his master’s anger growing inside him, but he had to do this, for John, if he’d fucking let him.

“Are we doing this or what?!” he shouted, unsure if his tone would come across as frustration or desperation.

“What’s the catch?” John asked, sounding so incredibly tired. His poor son, his poor Johnny, he’s been so cruel how could he be so cruel to his son?

“No catch! I fix Xander, he fixes the portal, we get what we want,” Wilbur said hurriedly. Wiggly wanted the portal fixed, Wiggly wanted John dead, or out of the way. If Xander was up, John would be okay, but they needed the portal fixed but they needed John to be out of the way but he couldn’t stand to see John sad.

God, this moment of clarity was killing him. Logically he knew it was the strength of the day they were entering allowing him to allow the fragments of himself to come out once more, and that it would end when midnight struck again. He also knew that when he fixed Xander, Wiggly wasn’t going to let him wait out the rest of the day, he was going to go right back-

Fuck, he remembered the torture, the years of torture, he hadn’t remembered that before, he hadn’t been able to. Wilbur grasped his head with one and and reached out for something to hold onto for stability with the other, only to grasp empty air. It was so much, the memories of the torture, of the pain, of the fear, and the knowledge that when he fixed Xander he was going to be tortured again until he forgot everything once more, went back to being Wiggly’s little toy soldier.

“Wilbur?” Johnny asked, standing. God, he looked so concerned. His little boy, his son. What had he done? What pain was he feeling? How could he do this? “Wilbur, what’s wrong?”

Wilbur let out a laugh, a mad sounding laugh as he pulled on his hair. “I’m fighting him!” he said, unsure if his laughter was laughter or panicked breathing when he didn’t even have lungs anymore. “Please for the love of the actual Fucking God, not that son of a Bitch who’s tortured me for years, let me save your husband, please let me make this right before he takes me again.”

John froze, watching him carefully before relaxing into a formal stance. He saluted Wilbur and nodded. God, Johnny looked so big and brave now, all grown up and a higher rank than he ever got to be. Wilbur had never felt so proud in his life. His son was one of the youngest generals America had seen, how could he not be proud.

Wilbur smiled at him as tears ran down his face, and he nodded back. “I love you, Johnny Boy, don’t you ever forget that, no matter what he makes me do, don’t forget I love you. You are my fucking son!” he said firmly.

“I love you too, Colonel Wilbur Cross,” John said.

God, it felt so good to be called Colonel again, to be called his name again, not Wiley. He could do this. Yes, he knew he would get tortured for it, that he’d forget everything he’d remembered because of it, but he would damn well do it. Closing his eyes, he eased his soul into the mostly open body in the room. Just in time too, he could feel it in his bones that midnight had arrived. Wilbur took a moment to settle correctly in the body, fascinated by the feeling of a real physical form after so many years without one.

“Wilbur?” John asked.

“In here, Johnny,” he said, his accent slipping through Xander’s lips as he began to assess the situation. “You’re lucky your old man has more experience with souls than the average ghost, or Xander here would be shit out of luck.”

“You can fix him?” Johnny asked, so hopeful and trusting. How had that trusting nature not been destroyed over the years? Wilbur was thankful for it, but also impressed by John’s fortitude in that manner.

“I can, but it’ll take a little while. I promise I don’t intend to stay in here longer than need be, but I will tell you when I leave he’s gonna take me back there and I ain’t comin’ back out as me again,” Wilbur said. It felt so strange to talk through someone else’s mouth.

John was silent at that, but he did sit back down and squeeze Wil- Xander’s hand. After a few minutes he asked, “What state will he be in when you leave?”

“He’ll need lots of sleep to recover. Now’s not the best time for that, but I can’t stay in here past my welcome and I won’t be able to protect him after that. Nobody should be wanting to possess him after that, but I can’t be sure Wiggly won’t send someone to kill you. I’m gonna try to take the process slow, to stretch it to dawn so he can rest for a few hours before night comes, but after that you’re on your own, Johnny. I’m sorry I can’t do more,” Wilbur sighed.

John shook his head. “You’re doing the best you can and you're fighting Wiggly’s power over you as we speak. All I can do is thank you.”

“I couldn’t stand there and watch you suffer, Johnny. You’re my son, even if I’m possessing your husband, you’re my son,” Wilbur said, opening an eye to peek at John.

John huffed at that and sat back. The joke wasn’t really a joke, but it got the reaction Wilbur had expected, and that was enough. He really was still John, even after everything Wilbur had gone through. It was nice, having a moment of peace with his son even in the situation they were in. Wilbur knew it was likely to be the last of its kind to ever happen, but it was nice, real nice to just sit there with John and pretend the world hadn’t fallen apart.

“Do you think you can eat something while you’re possessing him? I haven’t been able to get him to eat more than broth in days, he needs more in his stomach and if he is going to be sleeping for the rest of the day I need to get him to eat somehow,” John said.

“Yeah, Johnny, I can eat, if you order my favorite. Only time I’ll ever be able to eat it again, might as well have it, right? Shitty situation, but…” Wilbur replied.

“I’ll order it,” John agreed, standing up once more. “And, Wilbur?”

“Yeah, Johnny?”

“I’m going to kill that motherfucker if it is the last thing I do,” John stated firmly.

Wilbur smiled and closed his eyes again. “If ya do, I might finally get to rest in peace. Wouldn’t that be nice? Nobody wants to die, but after years of torture, after being used to cause suffering, to you and everybody else, peace sounds real nice.”

John’s lips tightened and he nodded, that look in his eye saying he was refusing to cry. “I’m going to get you that peaceful rest, Wilbur, Father.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After this is Halloween major, but depending on how long certain scenes take it might be spread into two chapters, then of course the recovery chapters afterwards. Soon! Next chapter or two are hella dark though, like people trying to murder each other dark, so be prepared for that.


	17. Everyone's Dying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane pays Tom a visit and it goes south fairly quickly. Sam is an asshole and Charlotte can defend herself. Ethan is not going to be happy when he wakes up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, first of the two climax chapters for this arc. This story is going to be much longer than the first lol. The chapter itself is over 8 pages long, I had to cut it off like I suspected I would have to, so next chapter has the rest of it, probably. It's not over yet!
> 
> As always the chapter title challenge is taking place, if you can correctly name what song each of the chapter titles comes from, I will fulfill a prompt of your choosing as long as it is something I can write.
> 
> Warnings! Oh boyyyy okay: violence, blood, guns, electrocution, threats of violence, threats of killing the body Sam is inside of/referenced mentions of suicide, mentions of past abuse kind of. It's a rough chapter folks, and next chapter is only slightly better. After that though you'll get to find out who is pregnant though!

Given the fact that most of the bodies possessed did not wake until daylight, most of the spirits decided to wait through the day, living as if they were the person they were possessing. It was an opportunity to be alive again, as long as they played it safe and didn’t make the ones around them suspicious. That was harder for some than others, but not every spirit had been able to possess in time before the sun rose due to strange sleep schedules of citizens in town, so they were biding their time until their forces were able to truly unite.

In the meantime, causing chaos and suffering while pretending to be their ‘host’ was what they were ordered to do. It was a fun game, remaining undetected while taking the ink out of printers or shoving kids in lockers or giving people incorrect diagnoses. Anything and everything was on the table, and once the work day ended? It was their turn to play.

\---

Tom wasn’t surprised when he got the call from Becky. It wasn’t unusual for her to ask if she could come over and hang out, help the kids with homework and get to bed on time. He’d accepted her request to come over of course he did. He was always happy to have her around, and given that it was Halloween he thought they could use as much help as they could get. Ethan and the kids had gone out to some Halloween event they and their friends had planned, so Tom was alone, and frankly he had the worst feeling all day that something bad was coming. Having Becky by his side would make a world of difference.

When he opened the door, he was greeted by a tight hug. Startled, he slowly hugged back, slightly confused by the action. Usually he would just let Becky inside, then they’d talk and maybe hug, but she was usually more interested in taking her coat and shoes off given the weather and the heat he kept the house at because the girls ran cold. Slowly, he pulled away and gestured for Becky to enter the house, looking out at the setting sun with concern.

“Did something happen on your way here?” he asked. If Stanley pulled some shit, he would find a way to fistfight something without a physical body, Tom swore to God he would.

“Oh, no, just happy to see you, Tommy,” Becky replied, and whoa. Okay. Not normal. Not normal at all. Becky didn’t call him Tommy. It was always Tom, it had always always always been Tom, even when they were young. Hell, she’d call him Thomas before she’d call him Tom, if he said something a bit too much.

“You sure?” Tom asked slowly as she took off her coat and hat-... Why was she wearing a hat? Becky hated hats, she hated that they messed up her hair so she only wore them if necessary. Why was she wearing a hat?

“Positive. Where are the kiddos?” Becky asked, smiling brightly. “Where’s Timmy?”

Okay. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. He’d known the moment Becky arrived but he knew for certain now. Becky called kids kiddos sometimes, but never his kids, and she never called Tim Timmy. The only one who ever called him Tommy was Jane. The only one who ever called Tim Timmy was Jane. Fuck.

“They’re out at a party, some of Lex’s friends put something together. Since trick or treat was cancelled until after Halloween they wanted to do something. Alice’s dad is watching over them, so they should be fine,” he said, acting as though he hadn’t noticed anything.

“Oh, when will they be home?” she asked, walking into the kitchen and putting her bag down on the island. “I bought candy for them, so they could have some given the whole thing with trick or treat.”

“Couple hours,” Tom replied, wondering what the hell he was supposed to do. Becky wasn’t moving like Becky, she wasn’t talking like Becky, she was moving and talking like Jane. She was acting like Jane was pretending to be Becky. What the hell was he supposed to do? They didn’t know how to make a ghost stop possessing someone, they only had a guess.

Jane turned back around to smile at him and said, “That’s alright! What do you want to do until they get back. We have… hours…” Her tone had shifted to one with more warmth and she let her hair down, causing it to cascade down her shoulders as she looked up at him with Becky’s eyes.

Jesus fucking Christ was she insinuating what he thought she was insinuating? They hadn’t- They hadn’t actually done anything that serious! Sure, they’d messed around some, but nothing without pants or anything like that. They’d agreed not to do it until they were ready, and not when the kids might hear them. The last thing either wanted to do was to explain what sex was anyone after someone walked in on them.

“Netflix is real,” Tom said faintly, pointing his thumb at the living room.

“Awe, don’t you want me, Tommy?” Jane asked, wrapping Becky’s arms around his neck.

Tom gulped and ducked out of her grasp, heading to the living room as he thought about what to do. What could he use to shock her? What could he use to shock her that wouldn’t potentially kill her? He looked around frantically until he heard her come up behind him. At that, he quickly turned around and instinctively reached out to grab the neck of his guitar. “Stay back.”

Jane’s demeanor instantly changed to one of anger. “What gave me away? Was I too forward? I knew she was a prude but, Tommy Bear, I know you want to fuck her again. I know you never stopped loving her, that I was just a spare to you. You never wanted me, you just couldn’t have her then!”

“You were a bit forward, yeah,” he said, holding the guitar more firmly.

She rolled Becky’s eyes and smirked at him as she stepped forward, pulling out a kitchen knife from one of the pockets in her nurse’s pants. “Please. You wouldn’t hurt her, and you wouldn’t do anything that could hurt that guitar. That was one of the first things we bought together! We’re going to teach Tim how to play it together!”

Tom took a step back, though he knew she was blocking the only exit and the windows wouldn’t be easy to break and escape through. These houses were made to keep threats out of them, not for easy exit. “Tim was never really interested in learning.”

“Because he’s 8! He can’t sit still, he’ll learn! We’ll make him learn!” Jane growled.

“If he doesn’t wanna play guitar, I’m not making him. Plans we make before a kid is born can’t be expected to hold up if the kid grows up and decides he doesn’t like that plan!” Tom insisted.

“Well you won’t be in the picture to stop me from teaching our son how to play!” she hissed, taking another step forward. “Do you know how much pain you put me through? I died because of you and your terrible driving! Because you didn’t pay attention to the road, I died with collapsed lungs filling with my own blood! Maybe if I’d died instantly, we wouldn’t be here, but no, I had to feel myself slowly dying as Tim sobbed and you struggled to be fucking competant!”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Tom cried, admitting to himself for the first time that there had genuinely been nothing he could do. “I couldn’t have stopped the car in time even if I’d seen the guy, not with the condition the road was in. I couldn’t have swerved out of the way without hitting a tree and potentially killing all of us. There was nothing I could have done. There was no cell service, that wasn’t my fault either. It wasn’t my fault. Your death wasn’t my fault.”

Jane screamed and lunged forward with the knife, landing it solidly in his core. Instinctively, he swung the guitar, crashing it over Becky’s head and knocking her prone, at least momentarily. There was no telling that the ghost inhabiting her body would keep it down long, no matter what he did. He swore, clutching his wound for a moment in shock, thanking the lord that Jane didn’t have Becky’s knowledge of the human body as he stumbled his way to the garage where his broken electric drill was. As he turned it on, he heard a sound at the doorway.

Becky stood there, her head bleeding from the wound that would likely result in her having a concussion. “You broke our guitar!” Jane screamed, lunging at him again.

Before her knife could land another blow, he reached out and shocked her with the broken drill. The knife cut his side as momentum carried her body forward into his. He managed to toss the drill away from them before she crashed into him, landing them both on the ground. Between the two bleeding wounds, the hard hit to the ground, and the shock both events caused his system, he felt himself losing consciousness before he could even attempt to call for help. His last thought was a prayer that Becky would be alright before everything went dark.

\---

“Ted, Baby, you were acting so strangely today, are you doin’ alright?” Charlotte asked when they arrived home. Ted had been called into Mr. Davidson’s office for his behavior, and it led them to get home after the sun began to set.

“I’m fine, Charlotte. Why don’t you start dinner?” Ted replied, heading into the bedroom.

Charlotte bit her lip, concerned by his actions, but rolled herself to the kitchen nevertheless. “What do you want tonight? I’ll cook up whatever you’re hungry for, if we’ve got it, and you help me,” she said sweetly, hoping he would start acting like himself again if she did.

“I’m not helping you make _shit_!” Ted called back, causing her to jump.

“What’s gotten into you today? You’ve been a real piece of work to everybody, including me!” she scolded, taking out what she needed to make a simple meal. If he was gonna act like that, she wasn’t gonna make him anything special, that was certain! It was too bad her hand mixer was on the fritz, it made whisking much easier with how shaky her hands were. Deciding to risk it, she plugged it in anyway and sat it to the side.

Ted laughed in the bedroom, and Charlotte wondered what he was up to. “You know, even back in high school I thought you were the most annoying person on the planet? I never actually loved you, I only wanted you to do my homework,” he said.

Charlotte frowned and froze, unsure what Ted was talking about. “Ted, we didn’t go to the same high school at all,” she said.

“And for someone so smart, you’ve always been _so fucking stupid_ ,” Ted said, exiting the bedroom and pointing the gun at her.

She squeaked in panic, grabbing her wheels to prepare to run if she needed to. “What do you mean? What’s going on?” Charlotte asked. They’d gotten the gun to protect themselves after everything that had happened before, but-but… Charlotte had no idea what was going on or why Ted was acting like he was, but she didn’t like it one bit.

“You know, I got bored of you the moment we got married. It was fun to have affairs though, that’s the only reason I kept such an ugly bitch like you around at all. I could have any fucking woman in town if I wanted, you were just the easiest to push around to keep things tidy. And then what do you do? Go and fuck somebody else? Go and fuck other people? I blessed you by letting you marry me, and that’s how you treat me? This motherfucker killed me!” Ted shouted.

“... Sam?” Charlotte asked, bewildered and terrified.

“Oh you’d better believe it, bitch!” Sam growled. “Who should I kill first, huh? The bitch that cheated on me or the asshole who killed me? Not only did he kill me, you also chose him over me, you cheated on me, with him, and then he killed me, and THEN you chose him over me, and THEN you moved in with him! Should I kill him first? So you can watch him die, and then when you sleep possess you too and kill you the same way?” Sam suddenly turned the gun to point at Ted’s temple instead of hers.

“No!” she screamed, rolling towards him quickly. “No please, I love him!”

Sam growled and pulled her out of her chair, kicking it out of the way so she couldn’t get back in it easily. Where was her phone? Where had she left her phone? She needed help she needed to call for help she-... There was no time, there was no way anyone would be able to come in time. She needed to be her own hero this time. Oh God, she needed to be her own hero.

“Which will it be, Charlotte? Who do I hate more? Who do I want dead more?” Sam said, pointing the gun at her head before turning it back to Ted’s. “If I kill you and then him, he’ll be disgraced, the town who already hates the guy will forget anything good about him and all you’ll be remembered as will be a victim. And then, when we’re all in the Black and White, I’ll torture you both just like Wiggly did to us, doesn’t that sound fun?”

When he pointed the gun at her once more, she grabbed his arm and pulled him down on top of her. As she pulled, a shot rang out and she felt a burning pain as a bullet grazed her side, but she managed to wrangle the gun from him in the process. He grabbed at her hands, attempting to pull the weapons away from her, causing another bullet to discharge and land in the ceiling. How many bullets did the gun have? She didn’t know, they hadn’t gotten a lot and they’d both practiced at the shooting range so they would know how to use it.

Sam laughed at her panic and punched her in the face in order to free the gun from her grasp. He stood once again and pointed it at Ted’s temple once more. “Should I put one where that bullet missed, huh? Should I kill your lover so you remember that you belong to me?”

“I don’t belong to anyone but myself!” Charlotte shouted, angry tears falling from her eyes. “I have always belonged to me, you have never been my keeper, or my owner because I am my own woman and you don’t know shit! You didn’t do me any favors by marrying me, in fact, you were a terrible husband! I would have been better off if I’d never married you! I’m glad Ted killed you because he is twice the man you ever were! Better in bed too!”

That last bit was more because she knew it would hurt Sam’s ego more than anything else she said. He growled and tossed the gun on the table, storming over to her as she pulled herself over to where she’d begun cooking. As he reached her, she pulled on the cord of the hand mixer to pull it down to her, and jammed the tool towards Sam, turning it on. The mixer sparked as it spun, tearing at Ted’s shirt and shoulder. He appeared to get shocked by the metal, and collapsed in a heap beside her, causing her to scream once more.

She turned off the mixer and dragged herself over to her wheelchair, putting on the locks so she could pull herself into it, then grabbed her phone out of the pocket on the back. First she tried calling Tom, but he didn’t answer, then Paul, who also didn’t answer. Great, something really bad was clearly happening. She tried Becky, no answer. She tried Bill, and finally, _finally_ someone picked up.

“Charlotte, are you okay?” he asked.

“Oh good, you know something bad is going on,” Charlotte said as she held her phone to her shoulder, took off the breaks, and rolled over the gun on the table, just in case she needed it again. Ted had yet to move and he was certainly bleeding.

“Are you okay?” Bill repeated. “I’m on my way to Alice’s girlfriend’s house, her parents are trying to kill her or something.”

“The bullet just grazed me and the hit wasn’t too bad, I’ll live. Ted’s unconscious though. I couldn’t get a hold of Paul or anybody but you, is the hospital safe?” she asked.

“Paul? Shit. I don’t know, but I can’t see why they wouldn’t be. I need to call Paul, you call 911, we make PEIP pay for the ambulance since this is ghost related, right? They’ll probably take all the ghost stuff over at their hospital anyway,” Bill stated.

“Right, be safe!” Charlotte said as she hung up and called 911.

\---

“It sucks that Deb couldn’t come, her parents said yesterday that she could,” Lex sighed. They were having the party at Alice’s place, and her dad was entertaining Hannah and Tim while the teens watched The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Lex and Ethan were wearing matching costumes of PEIP agents (after stealing uniforms from their storage), while Oliver was dressed as a vampire (it was funny because of his blood sugar problem), Grace was an angel (because of course she was), and Alice was a fairy (she said she was Ariel but Ariel was a mermaid and Lex was confused). Hannah and Tim were dressed as Power Rangers, Red and Blue respectfully, and Alice’s dad was dressed as, according to him, Oberon king of the fairies so he would match with Alice.

“Have you heard from her?” Grace asked.

Alice shook her head and sighed. “They’ve been awful all month. I don’t get it.”

“Maybe they’re being influenced by ghosts?” Oliver suggested.

“Probably not, they’ve always been assholes,” Lex disagreed before turning her attention to Ethan, who had been incredibly quiet all day. She’s assumed his mom had done something before school that morning and let it slide, but his mood hadn’t improved at all during the day. Frankly she wasn’t sure he’d said a single word. “Hey, are you alright, Babe?”

Ethan didn’t react to that, instead seemed to be watching the clock. Suddenly, Alice’s phone rang and he nodded as if he’d expected it. Odd. Lex looked to Hannah to see what her thoughts on the matter were. She’d been distant from Ethan since they picked her up from school refusing to let him touch her and refusing to speak. That, plus Lex’s gut feeling that something was very wrong, made her concerned about her boyfriend.

Alice picked up her phone and quickly stood up, her expression quickly becoming one of panic. “Okay, okay, okay, Deb, it’s going to be okay. Dad’s going to drive us over to your place right now,” Alice said before turning to her dad and covering the microphone. “Deb’s parents are freaking out and trying to break out her bedroom door, we need to get her _now_.”

Bill immediately sprang into action, putting on his shoes and coat. “Who is coming with?”

Ethan suddenly stood and said, “Lex and I should stay here with the kids. Grace, Alice, and Oliver should go with you.”

Okay weird that wasn’t how Ethan talked, that wasn’t how he said things. His inflection was wrong, and it was somehow too formal. Bill didn’t notice that though, just nodded to the others and ran out the door with Alice at his heels. Grace and Oliver soon followed and Lex closed the door behind them, stealthily grabbing the pepper spray from her purse in case she was correct.

“Hey, Hannah, Tim, who don’t you two go play in the game room upstairs,” she said, her tone casual but warning, not wanting to alarm them but wanting to spur them into action.

“Nah, ‘Banana’ should stay with us, don’t you think, Babe?” Ethan said, not sounding like Ethan in the slightest.

“Both of you, go, now,” Lex said, holding her pepper spray in a ready position.

The kids tried to run past, but Ethan grabbed Hannah as she went, causing her to scream and attempt to get free. “Not Ethan! Mom!” Hannah screamed as Ethan wrapped his arms around her.

Okay, that made way more sense. “Mom, let her go,” Lex said in a low tone, “and let Ethan go too.”

“I’ll let Ethan go when you two are dead!” she hissed, wrapping his arm around Hannah’s neck.

“Tim, go upstairs!” Lex repeated, hearing that he was still hiding behind the couch behind her, though he did not listen to her. 

She couldn’t spray the pepper spray without potentially hitting Hannah, but she also couldn’t do anything else without hitting her in that moment, so she had little choice. Lex marched forward and sprayed Ethan in the eyes, causing him to shout and release Hannah. It wasn’t clear whether Hannah got any in hers, she simply took off in the direction she knew the stairs to be in and was gone. Tossing the bottle to the side, she focused on the image of the electrical sticks Tom had made for PEIP to use against the ghosts, and where they were located in the armory on base, summoning one to her. Much more useful.

“You were such a bitch in life, but you know what? If you’re really here, I’m gonna give you a piece of my mind. Fuck you. You scarred Hannah for life, you scarred _me_ for life. And you know what? We don’t need you. We never did. We have an actual parent now who cares about us and treats us well. Trauma fucking sucks, but you’re gone, and you aren’t coming back. We’re safe now, and I’m not letting you change that!” Lex declared

Ethan didn’t give her the chance to use it though charging towards her blindly and grabbing her wrist with one hand and her throat with the other. With her free wrist she hit his eyes, causing him to hiss and let go of her, twisting her wrist as he did. She cried out in pain as the stick fell out of her hand and rolled away, out of reach. Lex instinctively pulled her wrist to her chest to protect it as he lunged at her again, choking her with both hands and pushing her into the couch as he did.

A shock ran through Lex as Ethan’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fell limp to her side, revealing a very determined looking Tim holding the electrical stick. “Fuck ghosts,” Tim said firmly, holding out the rod for her to take.

She quickly took it from him and turned it back off, scrambling to find her phone in order to call for help. “You’re totally right, fuck ghosts.” Tom wouldn’t answer, Becky wouldn’t answer, Emma’s line was busy, but John answered.

“Where are you?” he asked quickly.

She gave Bill’s address before adding, “We got Ethan shocked, he’s unconscious. My wrist is fucked and he’s got pepper spray in his eyes, Hannah might too, but we’re otherwise okay.”

“I’m sending people to get you now. No one there is bleeding out so it may take a while to get to you, but they will be there, do not leave in the meantime,” John ordered. “There are a lot of possessed people right now and we’re trying to find them all in order to remove the ghost from their bodies. They will be after you and your sister more than anyone, we cannot allow anything to befall you two. That said, you should be safe for now, alright?”

“Yes, Sir,” Lex said, hanging up the call and sighing loudly. What a fucking night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's just so much going on I had to split it up, I just had to. So much. I did enjoy Charlotte getting Sam with a traditionally feminine sort of item when he was kinda sexist to her.


	18. That Includes Me Too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A very concussed Becky is faced with her past and must defend herself without killing Tom. Emma stalls for time while Hidgens gets to the house. Deb has a real bad time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eiuhfqeuhguhe Okay so this chapter is about 9 full pages I think, and I had to cut myself off because I was getting into a whole new scene and it was just too much, so slightly cliffhanger, sorry. Emma's scene went on for a very long time and Deb still had to be fit in, so hvhsufusihgrowh I suppose.
> 
> As always, if you can guess the song each chapter title comes from in the story, I will fulfill a prompt you request, as long as it is something I can write. It will be in this universe, so good luck!
> 
> Warnings: iuhgruhg I am tired sorry for all the keyboard smashes but this chapter is a lot and it's almost four am and I'm gay. Violence! There's a fair amount of violence! Blood is mentioned! Injuries are mentioned! First and third scenes are more injury heavy than the second. Guns! Pain! Panic! Deb's having a panic attack when the scene starts. Violently singing the Heathers! Kinda medical talk? I'm no doctor but like I tried? Past abuse! Current abuse! It's not a great time ladies, gents, and those who know better! Not a great time at all!

Becky’s head hurt. That was the first thing she was aware of. Then she realized she was laying on something soft and wet. She forced herself to sit up, head spinning, and realized it was Tom, bleeding on the floor. Becky swore and pulled out her phone, calling for emergency medical assistance from the hospital on base as she put pressure on his wounds. She had no idea how they’d gotten into the mess they were in, she had no memory of the event, and she doubted she would remember what was currently happening due to her head.

Tom groaned and opened his eyes, looking up at her as she spoke to the ER nurse about the situation. “Becky?” he asked, his expression saying he was confused but his eyes not matching the emotion.

“You’re going to be okay, it doesn’t look like it hit any vital organs,” she soothed. God, her head hurt, but she needed to remain strong until the ambulance arrived.

He pushed himself into a sitting position, ignoring her protests against him moving, and looked around. Something was off, Becky didn’t know what, it was like… His eyes… There was something wrong with his eyes. She sat her phone down to take a closer look, knowing no one was paying attention on the other side at the moment with apparent craziness happening. It was unfortunate that she seemed to have a head wound, she would certainly be needed that night.

“Tom, look at me for a second,” she said, gently holding his face still so she could gauge his pupil sizes and how glazed his eyes were. Yes, they were a bit gazed, but there was no sign of concussion there, from a brief glance. Then again, she was positive she had a concussion, so she wasn’t sure she was the best of judges. Still, it was like his eyes were completely dead, devoid of emotion. Tom’s eyes always told what he was feeling, he was terrible at poker, something was very wrong.

“Am I dying, Doc?” he asked, clicking his tongue on the word ‘Doc’.

A chill went through her at that and she released him, scrambling back as quickly as she could before the movement caught up to her and she hissed from the pain in her head. Stanley. He used to call her Doc to tease her because he refused to let her go to medical school. He hadn’t wanted her to get a better pay than him, and it wasn’t a field for women. It didn’t matter how much she wanted to heal people, not just help, she had to become a nurse.

That had always made her so very angry, and when he told her not to take the job offer from PEIP because he didn’t want her working for the military, that anger finally snapped something inside her. She took the job, it paid better than working with the kids, no matter how much she loved children, and it had more to offer her as a career. He’d gotten mad, he’d gone on a rampage, and she was done. Becky was done, she couldn’t take it anymore. First he prevented her from becoming a doctor, then teased her about it for years while she learned how to be a nurse, then refused to let her take a good job, a better job.

She defended herself. It was only right. She’d defended herself. She’d hit back, finally, after years of taking it, she hit back and he went ape shit. The whole event was a blur, she just remembered he had a knife, and they ended up in the woods, and she stabbed him. It was self defense. After years of torment she stood up for herself and he tried to kill her for it, but she defended herself and he died because of it. It was only right.

“Awe, Baby, don’t act like that, didn’t you miss me?” Stanley asked, giving that devilish lopsided grin that sent fear through her body.

Electricity, she needed electricity, she read the memo. God, if only everything wasn’t blurred and there wasn’t blood sticking to her eyelashes, it would make looking for something much easier. “Why would I miss the asshole who ruined my life?” Becky said. Thinking was hard, God damn it all, her head hurt. She needed to think though, she needed to think.

“Ruined your life? Come on, Baby, don’t be so cruel,” Stanley said, his tone lowering dangerously.

Nearby sat Tom’s broken electrical drill. She knew that normally she’d be able to piece together what was going on but with how her head was spinning she wasn’t sure she would remember the current events at all. Becky knew the symptoms of a concussion even if she couldn’t figure out how she’d ended up with one. How’s that for a nurse? She quickly scrambled towards it, grabbing it before the startled, possessed man could think to do so, and held it threateningly in front of her.

“Whoa now, Baby, you killed me once, do you really wanna do it again?” Stanley asked, holding his hands up.

Becky didn’t have time, Tom needed pressure on his wounds or he’d bleed out no matter where they struck him. “You were a bad man, Stanley, a rotten man. I am so much more than you ever thought I was, and I never needed you. You were an abusive asshole who never deserved my love, and I’m glad you died, but I didn’t kill you, and for that I’m thankful. You tarnished me enough without adding that sin to my soul, I have nothing to feel guilty about,” she stated.

That got him mad. He lunged at her, fumbling due to the weakness Tom’s body was experiencing due to the bloodloss, and she turned on the drill just in time to shock him before he touched her. His momentum took him into her, giving her a shock as well, just managing to turn off the drill before anything more serious happened to either of them. The shock would be bad for Tom’s heart, and given the bloodloss he had already experienced, it could be dangerous. Thank god she’d got his shoulder and not his wound.

She rolled him off of her and reapplied pressure to his wounds, calling out to her phone a few feet away, “We need assistance _now_ , Tom got possessed.” The response wasn’t audible due to her distance from the phone, so she focused her attention on her patient. Her head was still killing her but having a patient gave her something to focus on. Sure, she should probably be laying down until her coworkers arrived, but Tom needed her. 

Everything blurred when the medics entered the garage. She wasn’t needed to keep Tom alive anymore, so the adrenaline went away pretty quickly after that. They were talking to her and she was trying to answer them as well as she could, but they were taking Tom away on a stretcher, and there were so many things moving in the room, and it was hard to focus. Before she realized it, they were on the ambulance, and it was far too bright, but she knew the light was necessary so that they could help Tom. One of the EMTs was putting pressure on the wound on her head, which wasn’t comfortable, but she stayed awake like they asked and focused on making sure she could hear Tom’s heart monitor beeping through the chatter.

\---

By the time Emma arrived home, it was after dark. She’d pulled double duty at the lab that day to make sure everything would be alright when the ghosts attacked. Emma left before Paul woke up (they’d planned with Bill for him to drive Paul to work in the morning) so she could help out, then went to class, then went back to work. She was tired, she felt gross, and she was starving.

The moment she walked in the house, she knew something was wrong. Paul always planned for dinner to be ready around when she arrived, but there was no smell of food in the air, and he wasn’t in the kitchen. She paused, confused and slightly concerned as she slowly took her hat off. “Paul?” she called, unsure if there was a threat in the home or if he was trying to scare her. Either was possible, she loved Halloween more than practically any other holiday, and loved horror. She wouldn’t be surprised if he jumped out and had put dinner in the fridge or something.

“Hello, Emma, how was work?” Paul asked, apparently sitting in the dark living staring at her.

“Jesus Christ,” Emma said, clutching her chest. “You scared the shit out of me, what the hell are you doing? Did you make dinner?” Something was wrong. He sounded like someone doing a bad impression of Paul, not like her Paul at all. Still, she took off her coat, making sure her phone was in her pants pocket securely in case she needed to run.

“Oh, I forgot, sorry. I will get right on that. Why don’t you go upstairs and get your shower while I make it?” he said, still sounding like someone pretending to be Paul. Emma knew her boyfriend and she highly doubted he’d be able to sound like that. He’d sound goofy, sure, but he wasn’t nearly a good enough actor to pretend to be someone pretending to be him.

“Yeah sure, I’ll… get right on that…” she said, realizing that was what Paul had just said. Emma walked upstairs, most certainly not planning on getting a shower or changing.

Growing up, this time of year always made the old Victorian home seem haunted. The place had been in her family for generations, and had gotten a slightly terrible renovation in the seventies, which was what she and Paul were trying to fix. They weren’t trying to ‘bring it back to its original glory’ because it was a building? A building they had to live in? They were keeping its charm of course, but they were modernizing the inside to a degree so they could stand to live there. They hadn’t gotten nearly far enough along in that process though, and she could feel the presence of the imagined ghosts she’d crafted as a child.

No, the scarier thing was whatever was wrong with Paul, not the nonexistent Victorian dead children she’d had as imaginary friends. Emma wasn’t quite sure what to do. There was nothing in the house she could safely shock him with, if he was possessed which she assumed he likely was, and now she was cornered on the second story with no safe way to get back down. The damn house was built to withstand the occasional flood, so it had a high foundation, meaning her distance from the ground was even further.

She entered their bedroom and looked around to find anything she could use to defend herself. Quickly grabbing the large rock Paul had given her on one of their dates because it looked cool, and hid inside the closet. She jammed a hanger into the rail of it so the door couldn’t open and debated her options. Emma could call Bill, but he was watching the teens and kids while they partied so no one got into trouble and he’d be traumatized even more if he had to hurt Paul in any way. Option B, or rather H, it was then. She pulled up the contact ‘Science Dad’ and hit call.

“Emma! Are you alright, people are being possessed,” Hidgens said quickly.

“I think Paul’s possessed, but he’d got me cornered upstairs right now and I have nothing I can shock him with,” Emma whispered. She could hear the old stairs creaking as ‘Paul’ made his way up to the second floor, and his footsteps as he neared her room.

“Not even a hairdryer?” Hidgens asked.

Emma rolled her eyes. “I spent forty dollars on a good hairdryer. I'm not breaking it so I can shock my boyfriend.”

“That’s fair, I-”

The rest of his statement was lost to Emma as the bedroom door slammed open. “Emmmaaaa,” he called.

She gulped and sat silently, praying the professor’s panicked speaking on the other end wouldn’t be loud enough for him to hear. That prayer was answered with Paul slamming his hands against the jammed closet door. “Shit!” Emma yelped, pushing herself as far against the wall as she could.

“Emma! What’s going on?” the professor shouted.

“He found me. Get here. Now,” she said frantically as Paul continued to attempt to break in.

“Ten minutes, give me ten minutes,” Hidgens said. It should take him around fifteen to get to their house, but she appreciated his clearly planned speeding.

“Emma, you were always such a bitch at work, and now you’re preventing me from getting peace in the afterlife. Your cruelty knows no bounds, does it?” he asked, pacing.

So it was Zoey, alright. Little weird, but alright. She had said she would kill Emma, so she wasn’t all that surprised, it was still weird to hear, very clearly, Zoey’s tone and speech pattern being spoken by her boyfriend. “You forget I have home field advantage here, Zoey,” she said. 

“I died because of you! They made me fly a helicopter and it crashed and I died, all because they wanted to infect you soooo badly. Like, why are you so special?! What the hell is a Heart?!” Zoey exclaimed. “He picked me specifically because I knew you and was upset about my death, so whoop de doo, I get special torment from the big man himself! I got! Special torture! Just because! He wanted you dead! Yaaayyyy meeee.”

“I’m sorry for what happened to you, I’m sorry you died, I’m sorry you were tormented in the afterlife, but that isn’t my fault. You were infected, Paul and I were just trying to survive. It wasn’t our fault you were turned around in your seat and broke… everything when we crashed, hell, I almost died in that crash too! I don’t owe you my death to make you feel better,” Emma stated firmly.

Then Zoey started singing ‘Meant to be Yours’.

God, really? The Heathers? She had to know how much Paul hated musicals, it was incredibly painful and honestly a reminder of trauma for her to make him sing. The Heathers was a cool musical and all, a little mainstream for her taste but a good musical. Hearing Paul sing it though brought her back to that day in her hospital room when he was still infected. Emma closed her eyes tightly to block out the sound and the memories.

“Hey wait wait wait, before you kill me and all that why not start the song from the beginning. I’m sure it’s way more fun to sing when you have a body,” Emma suggested.

Zoey paused before saying, “... You aren’t wrong. You can’t really sing in the afterlife at all, there isn’t a reason to, and you don’t have a voice to sing with. You’re just kinda there, you know? Like, your consciousness… or whatever. I missed singing… You hate my singing.”

“What can I say, it’s the least I can do after kinda getting you killed,” Emma said, shrugging even though Zoey wouldn’t be able to see it.

The twenty something year old woman bounced a bit at the idea of singing again and wow it was weird to see Paul do that straight girl cheerful thing, that was just… wow, before beginning the song from the top. That bought Emma another two or so minutes before Zoey’s attention would turn back towards her, still singing. By Emma’s count, they’d talked for maybe three minutes, and another minute of her singing and pacing, so an additional two minutes would put her at six minutes. She needed to buy more time.

“Wait wait wait, this isn’t dramatic enough. You need JD’s coat, right? So you can whoosh as you pace,” Emma suggested.

There was a pause as Emma thought Zoey might change her mind, realize she was stalling without knowing why, and just kill her. “Where could I get a coat like his if you’re in the closet?” Zoey asked suspiciously. Oh thank god, she was still an idiot.

“In the closet in the office there’s an old leather jacket of my dad’s that goes halfway between Paul’s hip and knee,” Emma explained. “It’s black and everything, it’s from 80s.”

“Oh great!” Zoey said, cheerfully bouncing off to grab the coat. Add another three minutes to the total. It was going to be tight but she hoped Zoey’s flair for the dramatic would cause her to slow it down. When she returned, Zoey went back to the top, singing the song from the beginning. It was still bringing back memories of that terrible day, but she was focused on listening for any sign of Hidgens.

Zoey slammed Paul’s fist into the closet again and shouted, “EMMA, open the, open the door please, Emma, please open the door!”

There was a crashing sound downstairs, but Zoey didn’t seem disturbed, she was much too into her performance.

“Emma, can we not fight anymore, please, can we not fight anymore? Emma, I know you’re scared I’ve been there, I can set you free, Emma, don’t make me come in there, I’m gonna count to three!” Zoey screamed, pacing now as she got into the song. “One, two-”

“Step away from my daughter!” Hidgens said from the doorway, pointing his rifle at Paul. Always so dramatic.

“Your daughter? Who are you?!” Zoey exclaimed with confusion.

“I am Professor Henry Hidgens, and that woman is under my protection,” he growled.

Zoey’s demeanor suddenly changed, and through the slats on the door she could see Paul’s eyes take a green tint to them. “Oh, Henry, you want so very much to make up for trying to kill her before, don’t you?” she- no that wasn’t Zoey anymore, it wasn’t Paul either, it was something else.

Hidgens didn’t lower his gun in the slightest. “Exit that man, foul demon, or I will vanquish you myself.”

“But she will never forgive you if you kill her Guardian, will she? You and I can be very good buddy wuds, you know. I can give you everything you desire, all you-”

He was cut off by the sound of a shotgun, and Paul was pushed by momentum back into the wall. Before anyone else could react, Hidgens rushed forward with what seemed to be an Alexa with wires exposed, which he shocked Paul with. The man went limp and Emma unjammed the closet door, rushing to his side. There were holes in his suit, but nothing severe like a shot from a shotgun would do.

“Salt bullets,” Hidgens explained, kneeling beside her. “They’re shit at actually doing anything, but that was precisely what I needed. Plus, the paranormal and salt don’t exactly get along. He should be fine, but we may want to take him to the hospital to get checked over, just in case.”

Emma nodded, stroking Paul’s hair back into its correct places. “Why did he pass out?”

“Effect of the ghost leaving, I suppose. He was possessed while he was asleep, he likely experienced the day as though he’d slept through it, like he’d never woken up in the morning,” Hidgens said. “Come on, let’s get him in my car, we’ll go to the hospital on the PEIP base so they can make sure he’s well.”

\---

Deb couldn’t control her breathing, the panic was real. Normally when she had panic attacks, it wasn’t for as good of a reason as the one she was currently having, because her parents were trying to break down her bedroom door, and were screaming terrible things to her from the other side. She was hidden away in her safe place, inside the closet, but the doors would be no use stopping them if they got inside.

“Deb, talk to me, okay? We’re almost there,” Alice said, her own panic obvious in her voice despite trying to sound calm.

“The door-” Deb said, getting cut off by the sound of her parents finally busting through the locked area with their kicking. She screamed as her parents rushed into the room and practically pulled her sliding closet doors down to get to her.

“Deb!” Alice cried.

“ALICE!” Deb screamed as her phone slipped from her grasp when they pulled her out of the closet.

“You were always a disappointment! Always!” her mother screamed, pulling at her hair and right arm

“We should have picked a better daughter!” her father roared, pulling her left arm in the opposite direction.

“ALICE!” she screamed again as her parents, who had always metaphorically torn her apart, literally tried to tear her apart.

Deb never had a chance, not against two fully grown adults who wanted her dead. She didn’t understand what she’d done wrong. Was this a ghost thing? That was the only explanation she could think of while she screamed from the pain of being pulled in different directions. Her parents had never loved her, had they? Even if this was a ghost thing, they’d never actually loved her, had they? They loved the idea of her, of a perfect daughter, they’d never loved her, and that, that fact was what was going to kill her.

“Leave that girl alone!” a voice shouted, which Deb could not place in that moment as Bill.

Her parents didn’t stop, actually growling at the man who then punched her father in the face. He stumbled into his wife, losing his grip in surprise. The man, who Deb now recognized as Bill, grabbed him and pulled him away as three of Deb’s friends (including Alice) rushed in and tackled her mom to the ground. She lost her grip on Deb, who frantically grabbed her phone, her backpack, and her coat and bolted out the door, pulling Alice with her. She heard the others following after them, at least she thought she did, her adrenaline was pumping so hard she was both acutely aware of the situation and oblivious to everything,

Soon everyone was piled into Bill’s car and he was driving, though Deb wasn’t sure where exactly they were going. Her hands shook as she squeezed Alice’s, sobbing into her chest. She was buckled, she had no idea when that happened but she was sobbing and both she and Alice were buckled and oh god, her shoulders hurt.

She was fairly certain that her sudden scream of pain startled everyone in the car, including Bill who swerved a bit as he drove. “Alice?!” he called nervously.

“What’s wrong, Debbie, what hurts?” Alice soothed, pulling Deb closer which only made her shoulder hurt more, causing another pained scream even as Deb buried her head against Alice’s chest, sobbing.

She couldn’t articulate what was wrong, or what hurt, because it hurt, and she couldn’t breathe and she was crying and it hurt so very bad. Deb knew leaning on Alice was only making her shoulder hurt worse, but she needed that comfort, and Alice was the only one who could help her remember to breathe. She listened as Alice started whispering quiet, soothing things, telling her everything would be okay, telling her about the apartment they’d have in the city some day, and the cat they were going to get. By the time they reached the hospital, she was still crying and unable to communicate due to the pain, but she wasn’t at risk of fainting from her hyperventilation.

Deb didn’t realize they were in a hospital until they were sitting in the waiting room of the ER and some of the fog cleared. She couldn’t stop crying it seemed, but Deb assumed that was because of the pain and the lingering fear from the event. The room was full of people, some in better shape than others, but everyone was scared. Alice seemed to have realized that her shoulders were the problem, and had taken to stroking through Deb’s hair to calm her. Mr. Bill was arguing with some doctor and Grace and Oliver were talking near the doorway.

“Grace?” a familiar voice called. Lex? What-

“Lex? What are you doing here?” Grace asked.

“Ethan was possessed, we just got brought here by PEIP. What happened with Deb?” Lex asked, her eyes suddenly catching Deb’s and widening. “Shit, let me- Hey!” Lex turned to the doctor Bill had been arguing with. “I am Lex Foster. You know me?”

The doctor nodded, confused. Everyone who worked for PEIP knew of the General’s protege.

“Great. My friend there in the plaid is not the crying type, and she is crying her eyes out. Get her in there, now,” Lex ordered.

“Y- I-... You have no-... We’re very busy-”

“I have McNamara on speed dial and he likes my friends. They’re my squad, he likes my squad. Don’t make me call him,” Lex threatened.

The doctor jumped at her tone and Deb found herself being whisked back into the ER. “Miss Foster, did you know your father’s in surgery?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weeeeeeee ifugruhgiohrgi You Understand Now. You Understand.
> 
> \- Yes Emma recognized the song she actually likes musicals but not most musicals she's into the less popular ones because she was an edgy kid in high school.  
> \- I hope Tom being possessed made all of you as uncomfortable as it made me  
> -Hidgens is very dramatic, he out drama-ed Zoey.  
> \- Deb has two dislocated shoulders with some tearing it's not a good time.


	19. You Blame Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom wakes up and finds himself surrounded by half asleep children and an unconscious Becky. Ted has Fear and Regret and Charlotte calls him a lot of pet names to cope. Emma and Paul talk about what happened and her trauma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A slightly lighter chapter. No violence this time! It is very early in the morning when this chapter takes place so most people are asleep. There is a lot that needs to be resolved and nobody is happy or having a great time. There is some joking around though, so there is that.
> 
> Chapter title challenge continues! If you can guess every chapter title from the story, what song it comes from, I will fill a prompt for you!
> 
> Warnings: mentions of pain medication and having taken it, mentions of injuries.

Tom… did not want to wake up. Waking up brought pain in his abdomen and he preferred the painless sleep he’d been in to that. That said, his body decided to force him into consciousness and he had little say in the matter. He turned his head, squinting slightly with his eyes still closed due to the light in the room. Tom could tell he had pain meds in his system, given how little he actually cared about his discomfort, but that did not mean it was not there.

“Dad?” Lex asked from beside him.

“Lexi?” Tom mumbled back, turning his head to try to find her.

“You gotta open your eyes to see me, Dad,” she said with a bit of a laugh to her voice.

Oh right, eyes. He forced them open and saw his kids in various seats around the room, with Hannah sleeping on Lex’s lap, Tim asleep on the foot of his bed, and Ethan sitting between him and the other bed in the room, appearing to have irritated eyes. Upon his curious investigation, he saw the other bed contained- “Becky?”

“She’ll be okay,” Ethan said. “They’ve been letting her sleep a bit at a time but she seems fine on that front. What… happened…?”

Tom sighed with relief and relaxed in the bed once more. “She came to the house, possessed by Jane. She stabbed me, I hit her with the guitar and ran to grab my broken drill. She followed me and as I shocked her she got me again, passed out after that.”

“After that, you got possessed and she shocked you,” Lex added.

“Possessed? By who?” Tom asked, offended that someone would do that to either of them.

Ethan gave Lex a look, one he would have been able to probably understand if he weren’t on the meds, and said, “We think you were possessed by Stanley.”

“Shit,” Tom whispered, running a hand over his face.

“Careful, Dad, don’t worry too much about that right now,” Lex said, somewhere between warning and soothing.

“What about you four? What time is it?” he asked.

“I got possessed and tried to kill Lex and Hannah,” Ethan said, his tone even but his expression one that showed how regretful and uncomfortable he was with the event.

Tom tried to sit up, but swore as pain flooded his abdomen, resulting in him laying back down in a thump.

“Dad, your stitches!” Lex cried, almost standing if it weren’t for the little girl on her lap. Hannah sniffled and whined at the motion and sound, pulling on Lex’s sweatshirt sleepily in protest. Lex readjusted how she had Hannah on her lap and cuddled her close again. “Sorry, Banana.”

All of them were dressed in comfy clothes now, rather than what they had gone to the party in, and Tom’s drug addled brain could not reason why that was. “Are you three okay? Where’d your clothes go?”

Ethan snorted at that. “We’re fine. Lex-... I…”

Lex showed him the brace she was now sporting. “Sprained my wrist in the fight, it’ll be fine in no time. Schaeffer took us home so we could change out of our costumes, that’s where our clothes went,” she explained. “Also, Paul was admitted for a night just to check him over, he was possessed too. Emma is in his room. Uhhh, Charlotte got lightly shot and she and Ted are both admitted but he sounded like he was worse off. And Deb’s in for the night too, ‘cause they want to do x-rays in the morning to make sure nothing’s broken.”

Way too much information to give someone on painkillers. “What?” Tom asked. “Your wrist is okay?”

“It will be. Paul and Ted got possessed. Paul got shot with salt or something, Ted got fucked up by a mixer. They were both admitted. Paul will probably go home today though. Ted might not, because he got fucked up by a mixer. Charlotte was admitted because she got grazed by a bullet. Deb’s parents were possessed and they tried to kill her, and she got both her shoulder’s dislocated. They kept her overnight too,” Lex explained slower.

That was a bit easier to understand, he could process that well enough. Tom nodded and asked, “What time is it?”

Ethan pulled out his phone and checked the time, saying, “It’s around five a.m. now.”

“Shit, did you two sleep?” Tom asked.

“We’re going home after we hear about Deb’s x-rays. We’ll sleep for a few hours and be back in the afternoon,” Lex explained.

Tom nodded and laid back down, exhausted from the conversation. He was relieved he had just bright kids, kids who could think through these things and make plans. Good kids. “I’m gonna sleep.”

“Okay, Dad, you do that,” Lex replied, her smile being the last thing Tom saw before closing his eyes and resting once more.

\---

Charlotte thought all this was a bit unnecessary. Yes it hurt, but poor Ted was in more pain than she was, she didn’t see why she had to be admitted. Yes, it was a gunshot wound, but it wasn’t too bad! She had deep scars on her stomach from much worse injuries, she remembered the pain that came when Sam tore her open. A bullet grazing her side wasn’t anything she thought required all that much fuss. Still, they’d asked her for a urine sample so they could make sure she wasn’t pregnant before they gave her something for the pain.

It was standard procedure, they said, for anyone of the right age and ability, so that they didn’t potentially risk the lives of the child and mother if they did something wrong. Charlotte had been fine with that, especially since she couldn’t recall off the top of her head when her last period was. She kept track of that sort of thing in her little planner, but that was back home and with everything that had been happening she thought she might have forgotten the whole thing.

Ted had slept through the night, and she hadn’t bothered to tell him anything when he woke up, groggy and confused. Poor Ted had a plaster on his left shoulder where she’d stuck the mixer to him, but he wasn’t nearly the worst off from what she had heard. He’d had to get patched up of course, but he hadn’t needed blood because she hadn’t gotten too deep into him, she hadn’t been aiming to kill. Still they’d given him something for the pain and he was never much of a morning person.

“Tell me again what happened,” Ted said. He was sitting up in bed now, and looking much better than he had over the course of the night.

“You acted strange all day, and when we got home you were possessed by Sam, and he was saying all sorts of things, and he tried to kill me-”

“ _I_ tried to kill you,” Ted rephrased.

“Oh no, Ted, that wasn’t you at all, no matter whose body he was using, it was Sam who was trying to kill us both. You have nothing to feel guilty about,” Charlotte disagreed.

Ted sighed and ran a hand through his hair like he did when he was upset. “Last I remember we were curling up in bed. I don’t remember getting up, I don’t remember being possessed, I don’t remember trying-... trying to kill you.”

“You were possessed in your sleep, they said. They said nobody who was possessed remembered it,” she assured.

“Doesn’t change the fact that you’ve got a black eye and your side was shot, both done by my hands,” he said, looking at his hands now.

“It only grazed me, Sweetie, and it wasn’t you. He was using you like a puppet, you would never hurt me. You aren’t your father,” Charlotte soothed. She wished she could hug him, comfort him, but she was stuck in the bed for the time being. Her chair was out of reach and she was hooked up to some things, nothing she could do.

“But you- I hurt you,” Ted said, still not looking over at her and sounding more distressed as the conversation continued.

“You didn’t, Baby, it was Sam, an even more rotten version of him than the one I married. I hurt you too. We’re even,” she assured. He didn’t respond and she sighed, patting her bed. “Teddy, look at me.”

He looked up, very clearly trying not to cry.

“I don’t blame you for a thing. You aren’t your father. We’re fine. We’re okay. I love you, and you love me, and we’re gonna be just fine, you’ll see,” Charlotte said calmly.

As she did, the doctor gently knocked on the door, clearing his throat. “Sorry to interrupt but I got you test results back, ma’am,” he said, holding a sheet of paper in his hand.

“What test?” Ted asked.

“What was the result?” Charlotte asked.

“Well,” the doctor couldn’t help but break into a smile as he looked at her, “I’m happy to inform you that you’re pregnant.”

“What?!” Ted exclaimed.

Shit, she’d just got him calmed down. “Thank you, Doctor. Please excuse us,” Charlotte said politely. The doctor sat the sheet of paper down on Ted’s bed, because he was closer to the door, and fled the scene.

“Pregnant?” Ted asked.

“They had to run a routine test to make sure I was or wasn’t, just to be safe,” she explained. “I… Well now that I think about it, I haven’t had my period yet, and it’s been about a week now, and I’d had some- Ted?”

Ted was pulling the devices off of him as quickly as he could, frantic in his motions as he forced himself to stand. He looked terrified, and it made Charlotte terrified too because she had no idea what could be causing it. Without a word, as the devices screamed for assistance, Ted pushed himself to walk to the door, using the wall as support.

“Ted!” she cried, panicked. What was going on? What did she do wrong?

\---

Paul’s head was… hazy, as he woke up. The last thing he remembered was going to bed, but he woke up in a hospital bed and logic dictated that something had gone seriously wrong. A gut feeling told him it wasn’t Halloween either. He opened his eyes and put a hand on his chest where he had multiple sore spots. Paul was genuinely confused how he’d found himself in that situation, but Emma was sitting in the chair to his right and Bill was sitting in one to his left, between him and the other bed in the room, so things were going to be fine.

“Paul, are you awake?” Emma asked.

He blinked. “I _am_ looking at you, aren’t I?”

She laughed and kissed his head. “How are you feeling?” Emma asked. She looked tired, like she hadn’t slept at all. Paul wondered why that was, then remembered he had literally just woken up in a hospital bed so, yeah, she was probably a bit concerned.

“I’m fine? I think? My chest hurts,” he said, feeling the spots again until she pulled his hand away.

“You got possessed. Hidgens shot you with salt and electrocuted you with an Alexa,” Emma explained.

“Why did he shoot me?” Paul asked. “I mean, thank God it wasn’t a real bullet but… why was he there? Why did he shoot me? When did this happen?”

“Last night. You probably don’t remember Halloween at all,” she stated.

Paul shook his head. “I don’t remember a thing. You only answered one of the questions.”

“You were possessed by Zoey, she wanted to kill me, I hid in a closet and called Hidgens for help, he shot you because you got possessed by something totally different for a second and then he shocked you to get rid of Zoey and the other thing that was there because of Zoey,” she explained.

None of that sounded pleasant, but he had no memory of it, so at least there was that. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I jammed the closet door so you couldn’t get in and stalled for time until the professor arrived. She did make you sing though, and that brought back a shit ton of repressed trauma, but that’s how life is sometimes in Hatchetfield,” Emma replied.

“She made me _sing_?” Paul asked.

“Oh yeah, she did a full musical number, wore a costume and everything. You would have hated it,” Emma replied.

“I’m so sorry you had to see that,” he said, squeezing her hand.

Emma shrugged. “Not the first time you did a musical number when trying to kill me,” she said simply, as if that was nothing.

“What?” Paul exclaimed.

“Shhh,” Bill said. “Alice and Deb are finally asleep, please do not wake them up now. Glad you’re fine though, Paul.”

“What?!” he whispered.

“Deb got hurt by ghosts and was up most of the night either panicking from what happened or loopy from the stuff they gave her so she would stop hyperventilating and stop crying from the pain,” Bill explained.

“Okay, not what the first ‘what’ was about but thank you,” Paul said, still looking uncomfortable and upset.

Emma sighed and said, “You were infected, you broke out of the cells and tried to kill me. It was right before Charlotte started getting cured. Was a bit traumatizing, but we’re fine. I’m fine. Everything is okay. No need to panic. There was enough panicking last night.”

“Yeah, but why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Paul asked.

“I… am going to go find the cafeteria, I think it’s open now. Emma, do you want anything?” Bill interrupted, standing up.

“Coffee please,” she said as Bill left the room. “I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t you. I thought- at the time, I… before you started singing I thought you might have been okay, you know? But you weren’t, and then you were making me dance with you around the room with my bad leg, and you were singing about how you were going to kill me, and… Schaeffer saved me, she shot you and, you know, I’m fine and everything… and you sang while you were being cured. And just… That day, those days, that period, it was so shitty, Paul, it was so shitty because you were in my life for a minute and then the universe took you away and then made you sing and dance in front of me to taunt me. I had you for a day and you were gone for two months and I thought you were going to die and that I was never going to actually get to know you. I thought the universe was just so fucking cruel that it would introduce the guy I- maybe, the guy I might actually want to stick to, and just take him away while making you everything you hated.”

“Emma…”

“It’s fine though!” she said with a sad laugh, wiping away a tear from her eye. “Really, it’s fine! You got better and you moved in with me and it turns out you really are as great as I had thought you might be, and we have time. We have time to figure things out and to make things work and we can be okay. We can be fine, we can have a future.”

Paul lifted the hand he was still holding to his lips and kissed it gently. “I’m sorry all that happened, but you’re right. We have a future. We went through hell to get where we are, but we’re here now. No ghosts can keep us apart, no infection, no mind controlling anything. It’s you and me, okay? I haven’t been the best of Guardians, but I swear to you I’ll do better.”

“You’ve done fine, it’s not your fault they got you,” she replied, squeezing his hand three times.

He squeezed back four times and smiled. “I love you, Emma Perkins. I really, honestly do.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Dork, and you can’t make me,” she teased before pausing. “... You know, we don’t have to break up, like ever. We could just be together. No one is stopping us.”

“No one is going to stop us from dating, I promise you people have better things to worry about,” he replied with a laugh.

She shoved him very gently on the shoulder. “Asshole. No, I mean it. We can just… stick together if we want. We don’t have to break up.”

“That was my plan, the, you know, the not breaking up part,” he agreed.

“Good then, that’s settled. We’ll just… not break up,” Emma stated.

“Sounds like a plan,” Paul said, trying not to laugh again.

They lapsed into silence again for a moment before Emma said, “Oh by the way, Hidgens broke the window on the back porch to get in last night, so that needs replaced and the house will be freezing when we get home.”

“Awe fuck,” he replied. “Well we might have massive heating bills because of this but at least he got to shoot me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay listen Ted is just freaking out because he was already panicking that he was becoming his dad and now he's finding out Charlotte is pregnant, next chapter this will be resolved, he isn't abandoning her or anything his brain just went RUN and he was out of it and upset enough that he listened. Ted has some issues that will be explained in better detail next chapter. In other news, here is the survey of what you guys think they should name their child! https://forms.gle/RLCiJuCbqgjLEmv6A


	20. See A Father

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ted and Bill have a heart to heart and he admits his concerns. Charlotte is a dear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly shorter chapter because I started writing this late and it's now almost six am, whoops. Plus, with how long the scene went on it seemed the right spot to end it.
> 
> Chapter challenge, as always, is happening. Too tired to explain what that means, sorry.
> 
> Warnings: Mention of not having an abortion, mention of teenage pregnancy.

Ted fucked up, he knew he had. Charlotte’s panicked shouts as he left the room were evidence of that, but in that moment he needed out, he needed an escape. It was all too much, between him hurting Charlotte and suddenly finding out she was pregnant without warning, his mind was spiraling around the fact that he was turning into his father. Thank God the doctor from before had told the nurses not to bother him as he leaned against the wall in the hallway, dizzy from emotion and exhaustion. He couldn’t handle strangers right now.

He was not crying, he wasn’t. Sure there were tears in his eyes but that was from exertion not emotion-. Shit. How was he gonna be a good dad if he couldn’t even admit to himself he occasionally cried? That he was not, in that moment of distress, crying? How could he foster a healthy relationship with emotions in his child if he didn’t have one himself? Even if he didn’t do the shit his dad did, even if he didn’t hit anyone, he was still destined to be a crap father. And Charlotte probably thought he was walking out on her, abandoning her when she needed him most. Ted couldn’t stop fucking things up, could he? He was just going to keep it up forever.

“Ted?” a startled voice asked. Ted didn’t immediately recognize the shoes that had been walking past him and then stopped in front of him, but when he looked up he realized it was Bill of all people.

“What?” Ted asked, wiping at his tears. He and Bill weren’t exactly friends as far as Ted was aware, but they weren’t ‘not friends’ either. After going through the Apotheosis together, it made the whole group closer. Just, Bill, of all people, being the one to find him crying because he found out he was going to be a dad.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Bill said, sitting down beside him.

Ted sniffled and rubbed his nose. “I’m a mess, aren’t I? Crying in the hallway of a hospital wearing a hospital gown and like nothing else because I was bleeding all over the place.”

Bill shrugged. “The hospital is one of the most reasonable places to cry. I don’t think anyone will think you’re less cool because of it, not that anyone thinks you’re cool now.”

He laughed a bit at that and rubbed his eyes, saying, “You’re probably right.”

“Why are you crying?” he asked. “Is Charlotte okay?”

Fucking hell. Ted’s eyes decided it was the best time to produce more tears as he whispered, “She’s pregnant.”

“Shit,” Bill whispered back. He was silent for a moment before adding, “With everything that happened to her during the Apotheosis, is she gonna be okay?”

“Jesus Christ, Bill, I hadn’t even thought about that yet!” Ted exclaimed, even more tears falling.

“Sorry, sorry! Did you not want to be a parent?” Bill asked.

Ted knew Bill was just trying to figure out why he was crying but it was not helping at the moment. “It doesn’t matter whether I wanted to be or not, I’m gonna be a shit one!”

“You don’t know that, you just found out about the pregnancy, there’s plenty of time to learn about parenting,” Bill said.

“No, I know I’m gonna be a shit parent because I already was one,” Ted admitted.

He wasn’t looking at Bill but he felt him recoil at that statement. “What do you mean?” Bill finally asked after processing the statement.

“I got my girlfriend pregnant when I was seventeen,” he said. God, it was the first time he’d ever talked about it, wasn’t it? He wasn’t ashamed of the event, he was ashamed of what happened after and regretted it every day of his life. How could he talk about that sort of thing? The only way he could fathom getting through the explanation without breaking down fully was to distance himself from the situation. “The baby was put up for adoption when it was born.”

Bill was quiet for a moment. “Did you want to give it up?”

Ted laughed and shook his head, rubbing away his tears, saying, “It didn’t matter whether I wanted to or not. My dad said men couldn’t raise kids, and I looked at how he treated me and his girlfriends and everything I’d ever learned from him and I looked at how he raised me, and I went, shit, you’re right. You did a fucking terrible job raising me, I won’t do any better. Plus I was living with him at the time, I was in high school, and I just couldn’t-... I couldn’t risk him treating my kid the way he treated me, I couldn’t risk her little head or her little lungs or-” He couldn’t continue the thought as images of his baby girl flashed through his mind, causing fresh tears to fall.

Bill put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. “You didn’t want to give her up,” he stated. “But you were a good father, you made the right decision. If you dad was that bad, you couldn’t assure the safety of your daughter. Ted, you’ve already made the hardest decision a father can make, and you made the right choice. You’re going to be a great father now that you’re in a better position to take care of your kid, and you have Charlotte. The fact that you’re so worked up over the fear of being like your dad shows that you’re nothing like him. You’re trying, we’ve all seen it. You’ve been trying so hard to be a better person and that is what your baby will need.”

“How could it be the right decision? I mean, I know, logically I know it was the right thing to do in my situation, but God knows what happened to her after that. What if she grew up in foster care? What if the people she ended up with were worse than she would have gotten with me?” Ted asked.

“The only way to know would be to reach out and try to find her,” Bill said. “Did you get to hold her before they took her?”

“We had 24 hours with her,” Ted said, unable to keep his voice from wobbling with emotion. “I held her as much as I could. Her mom wasn’t all that interested in her, she hadn’t wanted to get an abortion but she hadn’t wanted to be a mom either. I didn’t sleep that night. Man, the moment I held her for the first time, and she looked up at me…”

“Instant love and devotion,” Bill finished. “I get it. I had the exact same thing with Alice, and instantly fell in love. In the dad way, you know? In the, this small thing is mine and needs me and I love her more than I could ever love anything else.”

“The nurses said they’d never seen a baby put their thumb in their mouth as quickly as she did,” Ted laughed, wiping at his tears. “Practically the moment she was out, her thumb was in her mouth. And she had the cutest, biggest blue eyes, just looking up at me like she could see into my soul. She smiled at me and it broke my heart because I knew I couldn’t keep her and I might never see her again after that day, and I just-...”

“You loved her more than anything. If I had to give away Alice for her safety, it would break me. Your kid means everything to you, everything, even if they don’t understand it. When she called and told me she was at the high school…”

“I’m sorry I was such a douche about that,” Ted said. “Charlotte and I had a fight, before the whole conversation started, and I basically told her I was done being her side thing, and then she died in front of us because I left her alone with Sam when she was upset, and you were going on about your daughter and I’d just watched Charlotte die and was like, what if my daughter is still in Hatchetfield? She’s dead now and there’s nothing I can do about it. And then you were still talking about saving Alice and I was just so… I don’t know, pissed off I guess?”

“You were grieving and terrified and upset that I had the chance to save my daughter and you didn’t,” Bill said. “Plus you were trying your damnedest to get drunk as quickly as possible… Charlotte’s death wasn’t your fault, you know that right?”

“It kinda was. I told her I was done being a side thing and left her there with him, and he killed her,” Ted disagreed.

“Yeah, but that’s a reasonable thing to do. You two were a super unhealthy thing back then, between Sam and all the shit you both got up to. Deciding you didn’t want to be a part of that anymore was justified, especially since she was acting the way she was with Sam even though he was dead and tried to kill us. You were no angel in that situation either, and you have blame to take, but her death wasn’t entirely your fault,” Bill assured.

“I made her upset, and then left her with that alien fuck. And we both damn well know if she’d come up after me and told me she loved me I’d have gone right back to her like we hadn’t fought at all,” Ted sighed.

“You love her, that’s not a sin,” Bill said, squeezing Ted’s shoulder again. “Your relationship is so much healthier now than it was back then. Charlotte loves you, and you love her. Now you’re going to have a kid together. I think you two can really work it out. You had a rocky start but you both are going to be great parents.”

“I hit her, when I was possessed by Sam. I hit her and I shot her and she had to hurt me to protect herself. I’m going to be just like my father was,” Ted said.

“That wasn’t you, it was Sam, who was always an asshole. Your father sounds like a real asshole too, and you may be a jerk sometimes but I’ve never actually been scared you’d hit anyone, not even when we argued,” Bill said. “You aren’t a violent man, you’re a snarky man who doesn’t know when to stop, but you aren’t a bad guy. You aren’t Sam, you aren’t your father, you’re a guy crying in a hallway because you’re terrified of being like that.”

“Awh shut up,” Ted said, nudging Bill a bit.

“I will not. Tell you what, I’ll text you the information for my therapist. I think you should go. She’ll be able to help you work through all of this, and help you be in a more emotionally stable place when the baby comes,” Bill said, pulling out his phone. “Therapy really helps, I’ve had one session so far and laying everything out is really nice.”

“I can’t talk about this shit with people I trust, how am I supposed to talk to a therapist?” Ted asked. “And please tell me it isn’t McGregor’s office, I will never go there.”

“Wasn’t that who Charlotte saw?” Bill asked.

“Exactly,” Ted said.

Bill looked confused for a moment before realization struck him and he returned to texting the information to Ted. “No, this is the other office, Smith’s. And you’d be surprised how much easier it is to talk to a total stranger about your problems than it is to people you know. It’ll help, really.”

Ted nodded. “I’ll see about it, you’re probably right. You know more about emotion shit than I do. My dad was the, you know those kinds of guys who are obsessed with being a man and all that?”

“Macho men types, yeah I know of them. I was never around that culture, thank God,” Bill said.

“I was, and that’s why I don’t know shit about feelings,” Ted stated.

“What about your mom?” Bill asked.

Ted winced, and replied, “Died when I was ten. You know that whole Fourth of July thing?”

“I do, Paul’s parents died that day too, though he probably wouldn’t be happy I told you that,” Bill said.

“Shit, the noodle’s an orphan?” Ted asked.

“Yeah, and his aunt died when we were in college, I took him in after that,” Bill explained.

Ted tilted his head, thinking about that before continuing what he’d been saying. “After she died my dad got ten times worse, and started dating all these ladies, sometimes more than one at a time, treating them like he treated me. It didn’t exactly leave me with a good, you know, understanding of things.”

“I can imagine. That’s what therapy is for,” Bill said, standing up. “Ted, you’re gonna be fine, and you’re gonna be a great father. You just have to trust yourself, trust that you aren’t like him, and trust Charlotte too. In the end she did choose you, you had to be worthy of that. Go talk to her, tell her you love her and that you’re nervous to be a dad but you want to be a good one. You’re gonna be fine.”

Ted gave a tight lipped smile and nodded. “I’ll do that.”

Bill paused for a second before lifting his leg and gently kicking Ted in the head, causing Ted to laugh. “We’re friends now, you hear me? If you need me, call, text.”

“Yeah yeah, Sensei Bill, go do whatever you were trying to do,” Ted said, gently pushing at Bill’s legs with his good arm.

Ted watched as Bill left, wondering what the hell just happened. He had no idea what about Bill just made him the person to talk to, but it always seemed to be the case, not just for him but for other people too. Apparently he’d basically adopted Paul? And now they were actual friends not just the weird in between limbo they had been in since the Apotheosis? Bill was like a weird, friend shaped person you just instantly trusted and Ted honestly had no idea what to make of it.

After a minute of processing the conversation, he got assistance back to the room from a nurse and she hooked him back up to everything. Ted waited until she left to turn and look at Charlotte, who also hadn’t spoken yet. She looked concerned, but relieved he was back. Why did he love her so much? Ted would never understand it. He couldn’t understand what about her opened him up to actual emotions for the first time since he was in school, but she made him feel things and he couldn’t stop loving her if he tried.

“I shouldn’t have run out like that.” Ted finally said once they were alone.

“Are you okay?” Charlotte asked.

He nodded and looked down at his hands. “I got freaked out. Bill sat with me and talked me through it. It wasn’t-... It isn’t that I don’t want to be a dad,” Ted said, deciding that was a good place to start.

“You’re scared, I know. We’ve talked about how your dad was, after last night I wasn’t too upset when you ran out, ‘cause I thought you probably needed some time. I know the idea of being a dad must be scary for you, after everything,” she explained.

Okay good, she wasn’t upset with him. He didn’t know what he’d do if she’d been upset about him running out. “I’m already a dad,” Ted said. He should probably tell her about that, right? It seemed a bit important.

“What?” Charlotte asked, not upset, more confused.

“When I was eighteen my girlfriend at the time gave birth to our daughter, and we put her up for adoption the next day,” he explained. It was a bit easier to talk about a second time, Ted found. It wasn’t easy, but Charlotte deserved to know. “She’d be eighteen now. I didn’t want to, but with my dad...”

“Oh, Ted,” Charlotte said softly, causing him to look over at her again. There was a sadness in her eyes he couldn’t fix at the moment, which made him sad too. “We should try to find her, right? So you can meet her, and she can meet her little sibling when they come.”

Why was she so perfect? And soft? What was Ted supposed to do, he couldn’t even kiss her because he was stuck in bed again. “You… yeah. We can try. You know how Hatchetfield is with records though, there’s a good chance there’s no trace of her.”

“She still exists, somewhere. We’ll find her,” Charlotte insisted. “In the meantime, we can make the office into a nursery, right? We can make art to put up on the walls and make it all pretty for the baby.”

“What about the art that’s already in the office?” he asked. They both liked to be artsy and crafty, though Ted didn’t want anyone to know he was the one who was more of the painter while Charlotte was more of the crafter. His dad’s voice nagged him about it every time someone was over, telling him it made him less of a man and that he should be embarrassed. Maybe one day that voice would go away.

“There’s still room in the bedroom, and we can put the desk and everything in there too,” Charlotte suggested. “Oh this is going to be wonderful, Ted. We’re going to have our own family.”

Ted couldn’t stop but smile at that. “Yeah, we are. How about that?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Charlotte and Ted are both so complicated. I rewatched the scenes in the bunker before writing this chapter so Ted's opinions on what happened with Charlotte that day are based on that. I forgot he basically told her he was done, and that was why she'd been left with Sam alone asking God for him to wake Sam up.


	21. Love Each Other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deb's art is examined by those around her, she is very confused. Becky is also confused, mostly because she has a concussion and her short term memory isn't great at the moment. John is Tired and needs a nap. Xander makes him take a nap and handles a rowdy Emma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every scene that focuses on Xander has so many red lines it isn't even funny. This chapter went on a bit long because halfway through the third scene the perspective shifts to Xander's. Like John, I also need a nap.
> 
> The chapter title challenge is still happening! If you can name the song every chapter title comes from I will fulfill a prompt you give me within this universe!
> 
> Warnings: Mentions of injuries? This chapter is fairly tame compared to the last ones.

Last night was terrifying, there was no doubt about that, but now Deb had pain medication in her system so nothing hurt quite as bad as it had. More frustratingly, having two dislocated shoulders meant mobility was difficult, especially considering the fact that she was double slinged, and that therefore she basically had no way to draw. She knew, logically, she shouldn’t be this worked up about not being able to draw, but she could just see the thing in her mind that she needed to put on paper and the fact that she couldn’t was incredibly aggravating. 

Sometimes it felt like the pictures in her head needed to get out or she would explode. Again, logically, she knew she was just being dramatic, and yet the feeling lingered. Even worse, her sketchbook and pencils were right there in her bag, but she just couldn’t draw. She didn’t want to whine or bitch or anything, Bill had already been nice enough to say she could stay over at his place until he talked to her parents about everything. The last thing she wanted was for him to change his mind because she was being difficult. Still... 

“Can’t you at least get the sketchbook out so I can look at it?” Deb asked.

“You can’t draw until you’re out of the sling!” Alice said warmly. “I’m sorry, but it’ll only make things worse.”

“You draw, Deb?” Alice’s Uncle Paul asked.

Deb shrugged, then winced because ow, shrugging hurt. “Yeah, mostly abstract stuff though.”

“Can I see?” he asked, giving a hopeful smile to Bill.

Bill sighed and held his hand out for Alice to give him Deb’s sketchbook, which she did. Oh, Deb thought she was going to like this strange gangly nerd man. Bill handed the sketchbook to Paul and he and Alice’s Uncle Paul’s girlfriend Emma looked through it. She felt the familiar feeling of someone looking at her work, that mixture of hoping for praise and embarrassment, but it was worth it if she could get a step closer to drawing.

“These are really good!” Paul said cheerfully.

Emma though, she frowned and stopped the flipping of pages. “What’s this?” she asked, holding up the notebook to show a blue brain held in cupped hands.

“I don’t know, I drew that the night the meteor crashed down,” she said. She didn’t understand why Emma, Paul, and Bill all looked a bit uncomfortable when they saw it, or why Emma was flipping the pages slower now, looking more closely.

The next few pages were all right after she was cured, when she was trying to understand what she’d gone through, so a lot of neon blue and gooey shit. After that the pictures changed back to the usual sorts of things she drew, until Emma stopped flipping again and pointed at the weird swirling colors she’s drawn, a bright swirl of black and white and purple and green set into a silver circle and filling the rest of the page with light purple. “What about this one?” Emma asked.

“I don’t know, it was before the ghosts started happening, why?” Deb asked.

Emma didn’t answer, continuing to look through the pages like she was on a mission. Deb looked at Alice, confused, but Alice just shrugged, clueless as well. She had no idea why the adults were all obsessed with her sketches all of a sudden, nobody had ever cared about them before, aside from Alice. Their friends complimented them of course, but Alice was the one who would buy her pencils and sketchbooks when she ran out, since Deb had been forbidden from buying art supplies by her parents.

They stopped at her latest sketch, the one she’d drawn last night of a broken Alexa with wires exposed and sending out cool waves of purple around it before Emma suddenly snapped the book closed and looked at her with a serious expression. “Can I show these to someone? They’re very good, and I think he’d like them a lot,” she said.

“Sure? I don’t- why?” Deb asked, looking at all three of the real adults with confusion.

“Because I think you might be special like Lex and Hannah, in your own way, I need to get confirmation about that though before we’re certain,” she explained.

“Why do you think that?!” Deb cried.

“Deb, that brain in those hands is exactly what it looked like when our coworker held her infected husband’s brain in her hands,” Bill said. “Now, it’s nothing to freak out about, okay? We can take some deep breaths, no one is upset, no one is-”

“But I can’t be special! I can’t even be normal right, there’s no way I can be special!” she said, tears coming to her eyes as she thought about her parents’ words. “I’m a fuck up, I’m a huge fuck up I can’t be special or important or anything but a disappointment.”

“Honey…” Alice said, stroking her hair.

Emma turned her chair around to face Deb and gave her a sympathetic look. “My parents never tried to kill me, but I get it, maybe it wasn’t as bad for me as it has been for you, but I get thinking you can’t be special because you’re the Family Fuck-up. But look at me, right? I apparently mean something to the universe? And I helped solve some of what’s been going on. If I, the disappointment of a generation, can find myself in a place where I’m actually doing okay and important, then you can be special too.”

“I am never letting you live under their roof again, I swear that to God himself, I am not letting them anywhere near you if I can help it,” Bill swore, and Deb could tell he really meant it.

“God’s a woman, Dad,” Alice stated.

Bill took a deep breath and smiled at his daughter. “Honey, I love you, but not the time.”

Deb couldn’t help but laugh at that, which seemed to relieve the others in the room. Alice gave her a knowing wink and Deb smiled back at her. “Yeah, if you wanna show my sketchbook to somebody, you can, I guess. As long as you bring it back when you’re done,” Deb said.

“Thanks, by the way, what is it you really want to draw right now that started this whole thing?” Emma asked.

“Fire, lots of fire,” Deb said before shrugging and wincing again because she really shouldn’t be shrugging right now. “I don’t know what was happening, it was really dark, but there was fire.”

\---

Becky was… confused. She had been for a while, this was nothing new, it had to do with the concussion she assumed, but her confusion existed nevertheless. They said she was possessed, that she had attacked Tom and that he’d gotten possessed then and attacked her. Still, she didn’t really remember making the call to the hospital like they said she did, or fighting with Tom. The memories were there, slightly, but blurred and mostly non-existent.

She did remember Stanley, though her confused mind had mixed up the whole thing and she somewhat remembered her actual husband being there rather than him just having possessed Tom. That wasn’t true, but the human mind could be quite silly sometimes, and after getting a decent concussion hers hadn’t known how to process what was happening, after it had time to process what was happening. Becky did feel bad that she’d shocked him and apparently stabbed him, but she was still a bit too out of it to think about anything too hard, let alone guilt.

“We want to keep you both another night, just to make sure everything is alright. We aren’t sure if there could be side effects of the possessions and electrocutions on your injuries and we want to observe you for another night just to be safe. After that, Mr. Houston, you should be fine as long as you keep your activity to a minimum until you’re fully healed. Ms. Barnes, on the other hand, will still need to be monitored for a few days. You did quite a number on her, I’m sorry to say,” the doctor said.

Becky blinked, having just returned to the conversation when her name was said, and was bewildered as to what the conversation was even about. “What?” she asked. “Sorry, I just… got lost for a second, what are we talking about?”

Tom grimaced at that and nodded. “She’ll come stay with us for a few days until she starts doing better. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna hit her over the head with any more guitars… I don’t have any other guitars. I should probably get a new one, not! Not to hit Becky with but just… to have…”

She couldn’t help but snicker at Tom’s usual awkward attempts at jokes, even given the topic of said jokes. Becky knew he would never hurt her, that was never a concern when it came to Tom. For all she remembered, the injury just sort of happened, and Stanley was there, so she was just generally willing to accept whatever at that moment. “I’m going to stay with you guys?” she asked, fairly certain they hadn’t discussed that previously, but willing to roll with it.

“Yeah, if you trust me enough to stay over. Somebody’s gotta make sure your head doesn’t start hurting you more than it is now, and there’s plenty of people at my house to watch over you. When can she go back to work?” Tom asked, turning back to the doctor.

“Not for a week at least, we’ll have to see how she’s doing next Thursday, but it might end up being two weeks, just to be safe. She’s a nurse after all, we don’t want anything bad to happen by accident,” the doctor explained.

“I wanted to be a doctor, not a nurse,” Becky mused. “Stanley didn’t let me though.”

Tom winced again at that. He knew by now that Becky didn’t really fully remember what happened that night, and that she vaguely remembered Stanley being there, and that Tom was hurt, but he felt incredibly guilty for how much she’d been thinking about and mentioning her dead husband. “You still can be if you want, we can both do more school stuff together. Should she be alone right now?” he asked the doctor.

“As long as someone checks up on her she should be fine,” the doctor assured.

“Alright thanks, Dr. Milton,” Tom said with a smile. The man smiled back and left the room. “Really though, Becky, if you wanna be a doctor, you should go for it. You’re smart enough, and you care so much.”

“I stabbed you,” she said quietly, as if the realization just occurred to her. “That’s what they said earlier.”

“It wasn’t you, okay? It was a twisted, evil version of Jane. If anyone should feel bad, it’s me, I was myself when I gave you that concussion,” he said.

“Are you okay?” Becky asked.

“Yeah, Becky, I’m okay. She didn’t hit anything serious. We’re both gonna be just fine, alright?” Tom said. “The kids’ll be back here this afternoon, and when they go home I’ll have them set up stuff for when we get there tomorrow. Does that sound good? We can curl up on my bed and watch stupid romcoms for hours.”

Becky smiled. “That sounds good. Did we have this conversation before?”

“Bits of it, not the you staying over part though, that’s new. I’ll remind you when you forget though, don’t worry. They said it’s normal for your short term memory to be a bit bad right now, that it’s no big deal unless it’s still happening in a few days, then we should call them,” Tom explained.

She nodded, though it made her head spin some. Becky knew what the symptoms of concussions were, she knew what to look for. She had dealt with enough soldiers and agents with miscellaneous head injuries to know what to expect. It was nice that Tom was going to take care of her though, she wasn’t sure she’d expected that, even with everything. “Thank you, I love you,” Becky said, not quite realizing what she’d said as it slipped through her lips.

Tom froze for a moment before he turned to look at her again, and gave her a smile. “I love you too, Becky. Everything is gonna be just fine.”

\---

John was exhausted. That was a bit of an understatement considering he hadn’t slept much in the last week out of worry, and the night before had been too hectic to allow for any sleep. Between making sure his people got everyone freed from possession before the clock struck midnight and trying to keep Xander awake until the threat of possession had passed, he had been incredibly busy. Even hours later now, around noon, he had people coming in and out of the room with updates on the town and the formerly possessed and the portal.

When Wilbur left, Xander had immediately fallen asleep like everyone else. The majority of those infected fell asleep for hours after waking up though none of them slept for the same length of time and there wasn’t an obvious pattern. He had placed his best problem solvers on the mystery in hopes it could give them some answers, but he wasn’t too concerned. The next big threat was Wiggly himself, according to what Wilbur had told him, and that he was coming on Black Friday.

Xander was never a morning person, and after everything that had happened to him over the last stretch of time, John fully expected waking him up to be exactly the fight he got. Keeping him awake had been even more difficult, especially as John got bombarded with reports of possessions around town and his attention was drawn away from Xander. It was one thing after another. One report then a call from Lex then Becky was in the ER then the Heart and her Guardian were there, and on and on, and John could handle it, he was excellent at his job. You don’t become one of the youngest generals in American history for nothing.

As soon as midnight rolled around, he’d allowed Xander to fall back to sleep, giving him one less concern, and while new possession cases were no longer being reported, clean up was now in full swing and the hospital was packed with injured civilians. Now it was noon, and any time someone was not in the room with him, his head was bobbing as he struggled to stay awake. Soon, things would settle enough for him to actually sleep. If Xander was alright, he would have already zonked out for a few hours while he took over, but Xander wasn’t alright, and poor Schaeffer had her hands full with her own duties, she couldn’t take over his.

“John?” Xander asked with a yawn.

John breathed in as one does when waking up from dozing off, and blinked a few times. “Yes, I’m awake, are you hungry?” he asked.

Xander rubbed his eyes before looking around, appearing quite confused. “Why am I in the hospital?” he asked.

“What do you last remember?” John asked, unsure where he needed to begin.

“Everything’s blurry. Some things are clearer than others, the further out they are, but nothing’s really clear since the portal started malfunctioning. I know it’s been a while since then, but everything is hazy, I can’t remember exactly… anything since that night,” Xander admitted. “Can I get some coffee? I’ll eat if you get me coffee, I’m starving and exhausted… and you look even worse, when was the last time you slept, John?”

John was filled with relief as he pulled his husband into a kiss, sitting on the bed with him. He was back, he was really back, and already realizing John was pushing his limit like he always did. Xander seemed concerned by the action, but broke the kiss and held John close like he needed, staying quiet as John shuddered. Where did he begin?

“That was nearly a month ago. You died, and when I brought your spirit back to this dimension it didn’t settle correctly into your body. It took a month to get everything worked out, Wilbur… Wilbur saved you,” John breathed, resting his head in the crook of his husband’s neck.

“How?” Xander asked.

“I accidentally set the spirits free from the Black and White, controlled by the evil force we have been monitoring who we now know is named Wiggly. Wilbur… Wilbur was taken by Wiggly, turned into something else. He had a moment of clarity where he was able to save you, but he’s gone now,” John said, knowing his husband would notice the pauses in his speech and be concerned. That didn’t matter at the moment though, because Xander was holding him close and stroking his hair.

“We can talk about all that more later, okay? For right now why don’t you lay down with me,” Xander said. “When was the last time you actually slept in something other than a hospital chair?”

John paused, trying to think back but finding it difficult to count the days as they’d blurred together. “I can’t recall. It’s been days. You… you were unwell,” John said. Fucking pauses and repetitions, he never paused when he was alright, and he was trying very hard to be alright. He couldn’t protest as Xander pulled him to lay down on the bed, or when Xander pulled his legs up beside his own. John was tired and Xander was okay and when his body decided it was time to sleep he usually had no choice in the matter. If Xander was making that choice for it, then what could he do to say no?

“Where’s Schaeffer? Or Becky?” Xander asked. Becky was usually their nurse and she wasn’t around, strangely enough.

“Schaeffer is on duty, I do not know where. Becky is downstairs on the trauma floor, she got a concussion last night in the chaos,” John explained, cuddling close to Xander. He was exhausted and his husband was warm and the best pillow on earth.

“When’s the last time you ate, John?” Xander asked, quietly stroking his hair.

Shit, he’d forgotten that bit hadn’t he? He’d been so busy he hadn’t fed either of them since right before dusk. “Yesterday afternoon,” John said, knowing Xander wasn’t pleased with the response.

“Okay, you rest. I’ll order us both something to eat and then you can keep sleeping,” Xander stated.

“Gotta work,” he mumbled, knowing he had lost the fight.

“Sleep, John,” Xander ordered, and who was John to refuse?

“McNamara!” one Emma Perkins shouted as she opened the door to their room.

“Sh!” Xander hissed, looking down to see if John reacted to the intrusion. He did not, sound asleep, now curled against his husband.

Emma looked at the scene confused before nodding and coming closer, quietly saying, “I think one of Lex’s friends has a connection to the Black and White somehow, she’s been drawing stuff before it happened, look.” She showed Xander some of the pages, stopping on the page with the portal. “Deb’s never seen the portal before, she couldn’t have, and she drew it right. She drew this before the ghost shit happened, and she made it purple and green like it turned when everything went down on top of the usual black and white.”

Xander looked down at the picture, startled by the fact that he remembered the portal looking like that, and the swirling energy of the same colors that had entranced him for the last month, and startled that a teenager who had never had access to the headquarters building could get it that accurately. “How do you know what the portal looks like? You shouldn’t have access to that room,” he said, deciding to handle that first.

“I had permission to go in there because ectoplasm was all over the place and they needed it for testing,” she explained. “I know it looks like that. You’re the expert on the thing, you know it looks like that. The kid has no reason to know it looks like that. Even if they hack the system, there aren’t any pictures of the portal. She even got the design on the sides right. She’s gotta have the connection.”

“She’s a friend of Lex’s?” Xander asked.

“Yeah, Lex even got her into the ER sooner because she was worried,” Emma said.

Xander nodded. “All of Lex’s friends are special in one way or another, it’s why we’ve been allowing them to do their own investigations and such, handle things on their own within our realm of control so we can keep them in line. We thought it best to let them learn and grow naturally, give training to Lex because she has the potential to lead PEIP one day, and see what happened from there. We’re aware of them and their activities, don’t worry. Which one drew these?”

“Deborah, I don’t know her last name. She’s a lesbian who draws stuff, that’s about all I know. Oh! She has really controlling and shitty parents also, and she smokes weed, know that too,” Emma stated.

“Deb, yes. I’ll have it added to the file, thank you. You can tell her she does have a connection if you’d like, and explain what that means. When John’s in better shape he can give her the full explanation, but he needs to rest right now,” Xander said.

“Do all of them have a connection to the Black and White? I need to know so I can tell Bill,” Emma said.

“No, though we aren’t sure how each of them are special, besides Lex, Ethan, and his cousin Oliver, who will not stop hacking our servers. He’s a prodigy with computers, whether that is good or not,” Xander said with a slight smile. “When you leave can you tell a nurse we need help getting food? And if you see Becky, tell her we’re thinking about her.”

Emma gave a mock solute as she picked up the notebook and headed out of the room. “Will do, Boss. Keep up the good work, being conscious and all that shit.”

“Will do,” Xander replied, smiling wider.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Becky and Tom watch romcoms, hallmark movies, on purpose when they hang out because they like the mind numbing plots they don't need to think about and always end happy. They like to imagine happy endings are a possibility, that things can really work out like they do in the movies, plus they can cuddle while they watch them which is like, such a bonus.


	22. Angels Did Exist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deb, Bill, and Alice get Ted to draw them a picture of darkness and fire. Deb and Ted get along like a house on fire. Maybe that's what the picture means. Lex and Ethan are very soft and clean up the house for when Tom and Becky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mostly funny and soft. It made me smile and laugh while writing it, I hope you enjoy it as well. Deb and Ted are so fun to write interacting because they're both goofs with no filters who enjoy messing with people. Lex and Ethan deserve to be Soft and I will not hear OTHERWISE.
> 
> Chapter title challenge is still happening! If you can guess the songs each title of the fic is from I will fulfill a prompt for you! They are going to be published under 'Web Tied Asides', which I published yesterday. The first chapter is Xander's side of John's first scene in 'Web Tied Hearts'! The next one will be about the foundation of PEIP!
> 
> Warnings: Two bastards saying shit to each other and enjoying every second of it. A lot of mentions of cleaning up blood. These are two different scenes.

“If you can’t draw the thing you’re seeing right now, maybe you can describe it and someone else can draw it,” Bill suggested to Deb, who had now officially been released from the hospital, though they were now back in Paul’s hospital room.

“I can’t draw for shit,” Emma muttered, holding up her hands in surrender.

“Well, Ted and Charlotte are good at art, maybe you can go ask them,” Paul suggested.

“They’re both artistic?” Bill asked. “Charlotte’s shown me her crafts, I didn’t know Ted did stuff too.”

“He’s shy about it,” Paul explained, “but their walls are covered in art for a reason. They’ve got two easels in their office because they paint together.”

Bill’s eyebrows went up, but he nodded in approval. “We’ll go ask them if one of them would be willing to do it. Did I tell you- shoot I didn’t. Charlotte’s pregnant!” Bill said with excitement.

“Wait, really?” Emma said, her eyes widening.

“Apparently! Ted said so! I’m guessing the doctors found out because of everything,” Bill said.

Deb did not know these people, but given the adults’ reactions, there was a story there, but they still seemed excited about the event. She had no idea what their deal was, but she assumed she would be learning who the people were and why Emma and Paul both looked both uncertain and elated by the news. “Congrats to them?” she said. “Like, I don’t know them but that’s a good thing, right? Unless you aren’t sure the baby’s his or something…?”

“The baby is his I assure you, if there’d been doubt Ted wouldn’t have reacted the way he did,” Bill assured quickly.

That got the other two to relax. “We should do something! Something nice, I don’t know anything about babies but, you know…” Paul suggested.

“They’ll have a baby shower in a couple months, we’ll go to that,” Emma said.

“Baby showers are usually women only, I wasn’t allowed to Alice’s,” Bill said, “but they don’t have a lot of friends or family, so I can imagine they might invite us too. We can throw them a surprise party at the office too, if you’d want. Mr. Davidson is all about team bonding, he’ll probably approve the idea.”

Paul nodded. “Great, you can suggest it to him on Monday then,” he said.

“Why’s it gotta be me?” Bill whined.

“You thought of it, and you organize stuff all the time,” Paul said with a smile and nod. “And I’m not gonna do shit.”

“Fuck you too, Paul. Alright, Alice, do you want to come with us or stay here?” Bill said.

“I’ll come, I’ll carry her bag!” Alice said cheerfully, throwing Deb’s bag over her shoulder.

Bill nodded and waved for them to follow him. They walked down the hall to a different room and he knocked on the open door before entering. “Sorry for intruding but we were wondering if either of you could help us out with something.”

“Jesus Christ, did she try to go hand to hand with a linebacker? Who manages to fuck up both arms?” Ted asked in a tone those who knew him to be one of joking.

Bill tensed because Deb did not know him and he had no idea how she would react to his antics. “Now, Ted-”

“Well you’re a rat bastard, aren’t you?” Deb replied with a smirk. “Yeah, I went hand to hand with a linebacker, broke me in half like the stick of a lesbian I am.”

Ted smirked in response, nodding in approval. “No seriously though, who the fuck are you?”

“Bill’s daughter’s stoner girlfriend,” she said. Oh this guy was fun. An adult who could dish it out like she could. “And you, Mr. Tall-And-Hairy?”

“Bill’s obnoxious friend and coworker. Who actually fucked up your shit?” Ted asked.

Deb was amused, the other three people in the room were watching them with total confusion. She enjoyed confusing people. “My parents. Bill punched the shit out of my dad, it was great. Who fucked your shit up?”

“My wife, but I shot her so it was fair,” Ted said.

“You didn’t shoot me, I was grazed, and it wasn’t you, you were possessed, and we aren’t married,” Charlotte scolded.

“I’m gonna marry the shit out of Alice one day, just you wait,” Deb replied, making Alice gasp and gently whack her chest. “What?! I am!”

“I like you, kid, what’s your actual fucking name?” Ted asked.

“Deb, Deborah. Would either of you be willing to draw something for me? My arms are fucked at the moment and I may or may not have had a vision of the future I need to draw, but, again, my arms are fucked,” she said.

“A vision?” Charlotte asked, looking startled.

Bill fumbled as he looked through her backpack for the notebook and took it out, flipping to the page with the brain in feminine hands. “She drew this before the meteor fell.”

Both of them looked at the picture, then Charlotte looked down at her hands as Ted looked at her. It definitely looked like her hands, despite Deb having never met the woman before, or having known her husband’s brain fell out.

“Shit, yeah, I guess,” Ted said, clearly unsure what else to say.

“I’m not good at fine art stuff like drawing anymore, with how my hands shake, and I was never really that good at it. Ted is though! Right, Ted?” Charlotte said, looking to Ted and smiling.

He looked a bit bashful, which was surprising to everyone but Charlotte, as he said, “Yeah, I can try. Can’t say it’ll be any good, but I can try.”

“Great!” she said, sitting on his bed and gesturing for Alice to hand him her bag. “As long as you aren’t fucking left handed.”

“Oh no, I aimed for the left for a reason,” Charlotte said cheerfully.

“The heart’s on the left!” Bill said.

Alice snorted as she handed Ted the backpack. “Dad, no.”

“Well the left’s where you feel it, it could be more dangerous,” Bill said defensively.

“Thank GOD you aren’t a doctor. Alright, what am I drawing?” Ted asked.

“Fire. Darkness. It’s… it’s really dark. It’s like there is something on fire, flashes of it but everything’s touched with the light. There’s a large shape…” Deb said, getting more specific as he drew. This continued until she was satisfied, sitting back and smiling a bit. “Great. Maybe you’ll be as good as me one day.”

“Ah, I’m not that bad,” Ted smiled with a one shoulder shrug.

“Well thank you, that looks terrifying. We should get back to Paul and Emma, and oh! Congratulations, Charlotte,” Bill said as he pulled the girls out of the room.

“Bye bye now, good luck with whatever you were doing!” Charlotte said with a wave.

As they walked back to Paul’s room, Deb chuckled and said, “That dude’s a bastard, I like him.”

“You would, wouldn’t you?” Bill said, rolling his eyes affectionately as they returned to the room.

\---

Tom and Becky weren’t coming home that night, which meant it was Lex and Ethan’s job to get the kids to sleep. None of them had slept much the night before, and they were all excited to go to bed, but the kids were even more so despite having slept more than the teens. Kids just needed more sleep! Plus, Hannah was on a growth spurt and had been doing little more than sleeping or eating when she had time to herself.

Lex didn’t know what she’d do when Hannah was too big for them to pick up, didn’t know what she'd do when Hannah grew up. She’d come out of her shell so much in the last few months, and was acting like kids her age, though still with her own way of doing things and limited speaking. She did talk more now though, with more people who had more time to listen. Before being taken in by Tom, Hannah had never infodumped before, and now they could get her to do it all the time. Lex had no idea what the fuck she was talking about, but hearing Hannah being so excited and talking about something at length was amazing. She could listen to her do it for hours, she had, because it was just so great that she felt safe enough to talk now.

Hannah was growing up, she was ten now, double digits. Soon enough she’d be thirteen, then sixteen, then eighteen. Would she want to learn how to drive? Lex wasn’t sure, but they had years to talk about it. They didn’t know now how independent she was going to be as an adult, but Lex had every intention for Hannah to live with her and Ethan when Hannah finished with school. When they had kids, they would get to see their Aunt Hannah all the time, and she’d help watch over them. If Hannah decided one day that she wanted to live alone, they’d help her do that, all of them, but Lex and Ethan and Tom had all talked about this at length.

For now though, Hannah was a little girl sleepily hugging her arm as Lex guided her into the house, followed by Ethan carrying a sleeping Tim who had passed out on the ride home despite its short length. Ethan headed right up the stairs with him and Lex guided Hannah up to her room, and got her changed into pajamas before tucking her in, kissing her forehead, and saying goodnight. Not long after, she left the room and saw that Ethan was in Tom’s room, so she went over to help him.

“How’d it go, getting Buggy to bed?” Lex asked. Buggy was a nickname they’d come up with for Tim, because Hannah’s was Banana and he enjoyed bugs, it seemed fitting.

“He woke up enough to help me, but fell right back to sleep. You think either of them are gonna have a nightmare tonight?” Ethan asked as he organized the pillows on Tom’s bed for when he and Becky got there the next day.

Lex started putting her dad’s laundry in a hamper and generally picking up so it would be neat for Becky. “I don’t know, Hannah might, she’s still scared after everything yesterday. Tim might just because his dad isn’t home and that’s probably gonna be scary for him too.”

Ethan nodded. “Do you think I should get out the stuff for hot chocolate now, just to speed up the process?”

“Everything but the milk. If no one has a nightmare we can make the hot chocolate in the morning and say we’re breaking the rules. They’ll like that,” Lex said with a smile.

“They’re gonna be just like us one day, aren’t they, Babe? Rule breakers,” Ethan said, his tone shining with love.

“God, I hope not. By that point we’ll be the ones keeping the rules in place, then what?” Lex laughed.

“Did you get Alice’s text? She said Emma said that Xander said our whole friend group is special or something, and apparently Deb has a super power,” Ethan said.

Lex raised an eyebrow at him and stopped what she was doing to check her phone. “No, I was a little busy taking care of the kids… what?” she said, in response to the text. “I knew John knew about our little club and that he thought it was a good leadership opportunity for me, but I did not know everyone’s special. Not everyone has a power though, that’s what the text says.”

“You’re the Soul, or half of it. I’m your Guardian. Deb can apparently get visions of the future. Oliver is probably all about the tech shit. What about Alice and Grace?” Ethan asked.

“No idea. Alice is a good actress though, right? Maybe she’s got the stuff to be a really good spy or something,” Lex suggested as she tossed her phone as him.

It hit his chest and fell onto the bed. He stared at it for a moment before pocketing it. “Maybe! Also… why?” he asked, gesturing at her and then his chest and then the bed.

Lex shrugged. “I’m going to put laundry on. Meet me in my room when you’re done in here and getting the hot chocolate stuff out,” she said as she picked up the laundry basket and carried it downstairs.

As she reached the first floor, she realized the place hadn’t been cleaned from the day before, and there was still blood on the floor, a smashed guitar in the living room, and probably a huge mess in the garage. Great. “Hey, Babe?! Change of plans! Google how to get blood out of carpeting!” she called up the stairs as she carried the laundry to the garage where the washer and dryer were.

It was called the garage, and theoretically it could open for a car to enter, but it was mostly used for Tom’s projects, messier arts and crafts, and the laundry. That might change as the weather got colder, but they couldn’t fit both cars in it anyway, and Tom’s tools had nowhere else to go. Sure, it meant he was going to have to clean the car off every snowy day, but it was Michigan, he was going to have to do it anyway, even if the car was in the garage. Being an island on a great lake meant Hatchetfield was always hit pretty hard by winter storms, they were all used to it.

“I googled it, Babe!” Ethan’s voice called from the base of the stairs. “Holy shit we missed that earlier.”

“No shit, can you start cleaning the carpet? I’ll get the wood floors and in here,” she called back as she put the clothes in the washer.

One day they were going to live in a house together and do domestic things like clean and do laundry. She’d never fantasized about domesticity, but it was nice to imagine a future where they had their own place and did stuff like this, hopefully with less blood on the floor. Lex got supplies and began cleaning up the garage, then the dining room and kitchen, then the hallway as Ethan focused on the carpet, blotting away. Despite them being allowed to live there even if Tom didn’t work for them, it was technically a rental, and while they knew PEIP wasn’t going to home some bloodstains against them, considering their line of work, they still wanted the place to be clean when Tom and Becky returned… for trauma reasons.

By the time they were both done, and they’d cleaned up the broken drill and guitar, the laundry had to go in the drier, so Lex switched them and curled up in her bed with Ethan watching funny YouTube videos. There was no where on the planet she felt safer than in Ethan’s arms, and in the comfort of her room in her home with her family where she knew no one would hurt her, she knew she was okay, that everything was okay. Ethan was there, if someone tried something, if the kids needed help. She could let her walls down, she could relax, let him take some of the weight off her shoulders.

They were equals, they were partners. Lex knew without a doubt in her mind that she could face any foe that threatened those she loved, hell, faced the entire planet, as long as she knew Ethan was there by her side. While she faced them, stopped them, he’d be there protecting her and protecting Hannah from harm. She couldn’t save the world without him, she couldn’t even stand going to school without him. What was she going to do in college, if he was here in Hatchetfield and she was states away in DC? How was she supposed to feel safe if his strong, firm arms couldn’t hold her close?

“Babe, you should get changed for bed. I’ll go grab the laundry and change too, okay?” Ethan said quietly, placing a kiss on her head.

Lex hadn’t noticed she’d been drifting off until he spoke, but honestly she didn’t want to move. He wasn’t the greatest of pillows, but he was a great person to cuddle and she was comfortable enough as it was. Still he shook his arm that was around her gently, prompting her to sit up and stretch. “You’re boring,” she mumbled.

“Yeah yeah, get your pjs on, I’ll be back in a minute,” he said as he stood, kissed her again, and left her sitting there smiling.

Sometimes she wondered how she’d gotten so lucky at such a young age. Most of the time she just accepted it, because she loved him so much, but truly she was thankful to the universe for giving her Ethan Green. Without him, she wasn’t sure she’d be alive today, not with the Apotheosis. If Hannah had died that day too, if Tom hadn’t had such a strong conviction that everyone needed to be okay, Xander hadn’t stayed strong during those two months, the whole world would have ended, at least Lex thought so. If Ethan hadn’t been there, Hannah would have died and he wouldn’t have run into Tom, who tried to stay hopeful for them because they’d lost Lex. She was truly blessed to have him in her life.

Maybe angels did exist, maybe Ethan was one of them. Her own special Guardian angel.

Lex chuckled to herself at the joke as she changed into her sleep wear, then checked on the kids. Still sound asleep, luckily. She brushed her teeth as Ethan returned from with the laundry and placed it in Tom’s room, before joining her to do the same. The kids hadn’t brushed their teeth, but she wasn’t going to wake them now to do it. She’d have them do it before they picked up Tom and Becky from the hospital in the morning, Lex knew Tom would be glad she made them do it at all.

When they were ready for bed, Ethan gently pulled her into bed as she rolled her eyes, and pulled the covers up to their chins as he hugged her close. He smelled like toothpaste and old cologne and cigarettes from ages ago. It was homey, and warm, and safe. She felt loved and comfortable and calm. With Ethan she was home, no matter where she was, and Lex was happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are people who are going to comment on this chapter with stuff about their theory involving a specific mystery and I want those people to know that I love them for picking up with I was putting down so early. The majority of you will have no idea what this means. Those like THREE people will. Thank you for your service.


	23. All I Need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bill and Alice move Deb out of her parents' house and she feels a bit like she's in limbo. Ted and Charlotte receive news of a grim potential risk in her pregnancy. Tom and Becky get home and cuddle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I want to let you all know the reason this took so long as because I was writing 17 pages and over 7,770 words on the foundation of PEIP, which can be found in Web Tied Asides and is directly important to future plots so I recommend reading it, if you have the time and patience! You may miss something for the third installment if you don't, if only the background information.
> 
> The chapter title challenge is still in effect! Name the song each chapter title from the fic comes from and I will fulfill a prompt for you as long as I am comfortable! I currently have three lined up, all of which are about John and Xander, so be prepared for some cute stuff over there in Web Tied Asides.
> 
> Warnings! General shitty parents in the first scene. Pregnancy complications discussed in length in the second scene, abortion mention (not going to happen, just mentioned, and I want to warn you that it comes up). Stanley mentioned in the third scene.

Living with Bill, even for one night, was incredibly awkward. That awkwardness was not helped by the fact that she was staying in Paul’s old room. Deb wasn’t sure she’d ever felt more out of place than she had in her pajamas in a very ‘boy’ room covered in college memorabilia, doctor who bobbles, and old movie posters. She was butch, but there was a difference between butch and nerdy cis man. The tiny bi flag in the pencil holder was a nice touch though, Deb approved.

No matter how awkward it was between her and Bill, who she knew still didn’t know what to make of her, he was dead set on keeping her away from her parents. If that meant having Deb move in with them, he seemed willing to do that. Deb wondered how long it would be until he got sick of her. She knew this was temporary, they all did, until they found a more permanent solution. Even so, Bill had obtained boxes and they were now parked outside her house. Bill was at the door, talking to her parents, arguing with them it seemed.

She sighed and got out of the car, despite Alice’s protests. It was not easy to open the car door without assistance but she managed it, storming over to the doorway where her parents stood arguing with Bill. He was a square, but nobody deserved her parents’ wrath, especially not someone as kind as him. “What’s the hold up?” Deb asked firmly.

Her parents both looked shocked at the sight of her, both arms in slings and bruises on her face and elsewhere from when she’d struggled against them. They had been possessed after all, they had no memory of doing that to her. All they’d known was that she disappeared the night everything went crazy and didn’t come home the day before. She could see them attempting to process it, rationalize it, but they had bruises too. They knew there’d been a fight, and there was Deb, both arms in slings, agreeing to move in with a near stranger to get away with them.

Deb hoped to God they realized how much they’d fucked up.

“Who did that to you?” her dad asked, attempting to grab her arm and pull her away from Bill, who stepped between them defensively.

“You two. You each grabbed an arm and pulled until you fucked up my shoulders. Seriously, after figuratively tearing me apart from all the stress you put me under to be the perfect kid I could never be, you had to go and literally try and do it. It’s gonna be _weeks_ until I can hold a pencil again because it didn’t just dislocate my shoulders, there was actual fucking tearing. I don’t care that you two were possessed when you didn’t, I honestly don’t, because you’ve never given an actual shit about me, only the idea of me you had when you gave birth to me so, yeah. I want to move out. I am eighteen, I have somewhere to go, and it’s out of your controlling, egotistical grasps,” Deb declared angrily.

“You can’t keep your car if you leave, and we won’t pay for your college. You’ll be functionally an orphan, we will have nothing to do with you ever again,” her mother warned.

Deb just laughed. “You think I care about that material shit?! After everything you’ve put me through for the last eighteen years?! No! Keep your fucking car, keep your money. I didn’t even want to go to the school you were forcing me into, or did you forget that?! There’s scholarships and aid available to people who need it, and if I can’t get to school even with that then fuck it. I’ll just go straight to being an artist, like I have always wanted to be. I don’t need you two, you’ve never provided me with support that wasn’t money, and everything you gave you took away instantly. You wouldn’t even let me get a job so I could have my own money to spend! Let me take the shit I do care about and leave. You’ll never have to see this fuck up again.”

“You can’t just leave, you’re our daughter!” her father said. “Do you know how much trouble we went through to get you?! You owe us!”

“Deb doesn’t owe either of you anything, she is her own woman no matter how much money you spent to have her. I’ll also have to ask for her official documents, you know, the sort of things parents know to keep in mind? She needs her birth certificate and social security number and all that stuff, please,” Bill said politely, with a firm edge.

“I can’t believe this!” her mother shouted, storming off into the house.

“Look, I get it, you don’t want me to be the black sheep of the family now and get you two in heat with your buddies at the country club, I get it. Claim I was a lost cause from the beginning, claim there was nothing you did wrong to make it happen, make yourself the victim. I genuinely don’t care what you say about me when I’m gone. I just need to be gone because you two have never been anything but toxic for me and… you know what? I deserve better. I deserve more out of life. I deserve a life,” Deb said, nodding with resolution.

Her father stared her down for a moment before rolling his eyes and opening it for them to enter. “I never wanted you in the first place. Your damn mother fell for your ginger curls,” he growled as Deb ignored him, walking past.

Alice followed them into the house with the boxes from the car, also ignoring her father as he glared at her. When they got up to the room, Deb sat on the bed, shaking as she tried to keep her breath even. Sitting down the boxes, Alice sat next to her and tried to sooth her. Being in the room again brought back memories of that night, and the argument with her parents hadn’t helped any. The sooner they got things packed, the sooner they could leave, that was all that mattered.

There wasn’t much she wanted to take with her, the majority of her stuff being girly things her mom bought her. All she wanted was her clothes, her knickknacks, and her art, along with the art supplies hidden in her drawers. The father daughter duo made quick work of organizing what needed to go and figuring out how to pack it as Deb listened to her parents shouting at each other downstairs. Soon, soon she wouldn’t ever have to hear that shit again.

Suddenly her door flew open and her mother stormed in, handed her an envelope and left, slamming the door behind her. A cautious look told Deb it was her important paperwork, and a wad of cash her mother had decided to give her as a farewell gift. She took it out and counted it, finding there to be a hundred dollars in twenties and fives, or she thought that was how much there was. Deb had to count it twice because halfway through she was uncertain if she’d been counting correctly. It wasn’t much, but hey, it was something. She could buy so many pencils with that kind of cash, but not enough. Never enough. There were never enough pencils.

“Your documents?” Bill asked, looking up as he put her art supplies in a box.

“Yeah,” Deb replied as she put the cash back in the envelope.

Bill continued what he was doing, not looking up in order to not make her uncomfortable as he asked, “What your dad said… What was that about?”

She shrugged, then winced. Never do you realize how much you do something until you can’t do it without causing yourself pain. “I have no idea. I know my parents had a hard time conceiving though,” Deb said.

Although it was somewhat clear what he’d meant, considering she knew that, Deb had no proof and even after everything, she didn’t want to believe it. She wasn’t wanted by one family already, she truly didn’t want to have been abandoned by a second. It was so like them though, to just not tell her she was adopted or whatever so that she wouldn’t hope there was anyone out there who actually cared about her besides them. It was also very like him to lie about something like that to hurt her even more and distance himself from her.

Bill was quiet, thinking, before stopping what he was doing and looking up at her. “You have a place in our family, no matter what. I’ve got a lot of connections, somebody will take you in, and even if they don’t, Paul’s bedroom is always there. You aren’t alone in the world, alright?”

“Yeah yeah,” she said, looking down at her lap.

“Deb, look at me right now,” he said, staring at her until she did so. “You aren’t alone. Alice loves you. I know I’ve said things in the past but I understand what was happening now, and I’m sorry. As long as you are in a relationship with my daughter, you have a place in my home. If you two break up, Paul will take you, someone will always be there for you. You might not have parents but you’re a part of this family.”

Deb looked him in the eye a moment longer before looking down at her lap again. “Thanks,” she said, unsure what else to say. She wasn’t sure she’d ever get along entirely with Bill, not with the face he made when he found her weed stash, but she knew he’d stand beside her when she needed it. He was one of the good ones, she could trust him.

\---

There were some concerns.

Weren’t there always?

Charlotte had died during the Apotheosis due to her stomach area being torn open. It had healed, but with deep scarring that covered her entire abdomen. There were concerns that the scarring touched her uterus, and that it could make the pregnancy dangerous. The doctors had no idea how the events of the Apotheosis would affect anyone who became pregnant after being infected, let alone someone who had deep scarring like her. It made them nervous, and that made Charlotte and Ted nervous too.

Someone’s first ultrasound is supposed to be a happy time where the parents get to see the baby for the first time, but no one in the room was ecstatic as worry hung in the air. Ted held her hand as the doctor used the strange device. She was uncomfortable due to the amount of water she’d had to drink, but she was far enough along to have a normal ultrasound, but it was necessary. Whether the device showed good or bad news, they would get to see their baby.

They sat in silence as the doctor scanned over her stomach. Everything below where Sam had torn into her had limited feeling from the nerve endings damaged that day, and the shot to the head had caused the shaking and mobility loss, though the nerve damage didn’t help anything. That meant she could just slightly feel the cold liquid on her and the machine being rolled over her. She could feel more the pressure of the touch than anything, otherwise there wasn’t much there.

Finally the doctor found the fetus, and Charlotte honestly didn’t know what she was looking at. It had the tiniest of heart beats, and an orb with things in it… That was all Charlotte could really understand. She wasn’t a doctor! It was moving a little, like it had a heart beat, and the doctor said she was far enough along that it would have a heartbeat, so she assumed that was what it was doing! Still, she was clueless as to whether anything was wrong, and the doctor was awful quiet as she examined the fetus.

“What’s the prognosis?” Ted finally asked, squeezing her hand gently.

The doctor took another moment, and Charlotte just knew from her expression that something was wrong. She might not know doctor stuff, but she did know how to read people, and she could tell the doctor was bracing herself for something.

“When a woman has had a surgery or another complication that results in scarring in the uterus, sometimes it can lead to a fetus attaching itself to the scarring. This results in the placenta attaching itself too deeply. While it is too early to tell for certain if that is the case, given the scarring we know exists in the region and where the placenta seems to be, I believe you are at risk for it. This is called Placenta Accreta, it isn’t too uncommon, but given the trauma the area received in the past, it is possible it could attach quite deeply,” she explained in a calm tone.

Charlotte just squeezed Ted’s hand, unable to speak. She was confused and worried, far too much so to be able to ask the questions she had. Ted was there though, Ted was there for her. He would be able to handle the situation, maybe not well, but he would help while she tried not to panic about anything that might be wrong.

“What does that mean? Is the baby okay?” Ted asked, squeezing her hand back.

“I don’t see any abnormalities right now that would indicate anything is wrong with the baby, it seems perfectly healthy. Cases of Placenta Accreta often end up just fine, most babies that have no other health conditions are perfectly healthy when they’re born. The risk, however, is for the mother,” the doctor paused and looked at them both, taking another breath. “Hemorrhaging is the main risk, if the placenta is attempted to be removed from the uterus. Because of this, these cases need to have a c-section in order to safely give birth, and the uterus needs to be removed to prevent hemorrhaging from occurring.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Ted asked, squeezing her hand tighter.

“Given the risk, a c-section is necessary. If a natural birth occurs and the placenta is pulled from the uterus, it can cause hemorrhaging and death. The placenta can’t stay in a woman’s body, so to make sure it doesn’t separate from the uterus, the entire uterus must be removed,” she explained.

“Isn’t that just as dangerous?” Ted asked. “I mean, massive surgery?”

“It is much safer than the alternative, I assure you. I can’t be certain it is the case right now, but there is a good chance this pregnancy will be risky no matter what, considering all the factors. I’m sorry, I really am. Otherwise, your baby looks healthy, it is average in size, a bit on the smaller side but mom isn’t a big woman so it isn’t a concern. Its heart is beating wonderfully, it is right where it should be developmentally. You have a beautifully healthy baby right now. I think the majority of the risk is going to be for you,” she said, looking at Charlotte.

“Would an abortion-”

“No!” Charlotte cried. “I don’t care, but no. If I die bringing this baby into the world it will be worth it. If it’s healthy, nothing will be done.”

“An abortion wouldn’t necessarily fix the problem either. The best thing to do, as mom has said she wishes to do, is to keep moving forward. And we can’t know right now what the risk will be. It isn't possible to tell yet, not so early on. She will need a hysterectomy if it’s Placenta Accreta, but she should be just fine as long as she’s careful during the pregnancy and stays healthy,” the doctor assured.

Ted gently kissed her hand and rested his forehead against it. She could tell he was terrified of losing her again, but there wasn’t much she could do. There wasn’t much anyone could do. Charlotte wanted to scream and shout and throw things at her husband’s grave, dig up his ashes and burn them again for causing this, but even he couldn’t be held totally responsible.

“We’ll take it one day at a time and we’ll be just fine,” Charlotte assured.

\---

“Kids kids kids, where are the kids?!” Tom shouted as he and Becky entered the home.

Giggling was heard as Tim and Hannah ran down the stairs, coming from her room, and hugged him tightly. Tom hid his wince and held them tightly, glad to finally be back home. “Did you two behave for Lex?” he asked, in a serious tone.

Hannah nodded enthusiastically and Tim said, “Yeah! We brushed our teeth and everything!”

“Well I certainly hope you did!” Tom replied, ruffling his hair with a smile. “If you hadn’t I wouldn’t have been able to morally order pizza for dinner, now would I?”

“PIZZA!”” Tim shouted, running off down the hall, causing Tom to laugh.

“We made cards,” Hannah said, handing him the ‘get well soon’ cards Lex had suggested they make.

They had crayon and marker and glued on googly eyes, and were absolutely perfect. Also still wet. Oh well, Tom’s hand had glue on it now. That was the life of a parent. “They’re beautiful!” Tom complimented, handing them to Becky who was holding onto him for stability. “I’m gonna get us situated upstairs, can you and Tim go see if Lex and Ethan need any help?”

Hannah nodded and ran off as well, giving Tom the opportunity to smile at Becky and help her up the stairs to his room. He’d been worried that she would be afraid of him after he got possessed by Stanley, but she didn’t seem to remember the event enough to be traumatized by it, at least not yet. Tom wasn’t naive enough to assume that time wouldn’t come, but he was ready for when it did. He got them both into his bed, all tucked in cozy, by the time Lex appeared at the doorway, arms crossed.

“You two are certainly acting ‘intimate’,” she teased with a smile. Paul was so awkward, some of the things he said became a joke in the family and he appreciated that they were more amused than offended. Intimate was one of them, not that anyone actually remembered when it became a thing.

“Shut up, we’re snuggling. Did you bring the bag?” he asked.

Lex entered the room and put the hospital bag they’d gotten on his dresser. “I also washed, folded, and put away your clothes, you’re welcome, and we cleaned up the downstairs last night. Pretty sure we got everything, but you may want to look over the whole area just in case. We’ve been playing with the kids up here for today, just to be safe.”

“Lex, you’re amazing, thank you,” Tom said, incredibly proud of his daughter.

“I know I am. You want me to order pizza around five?” she asked.

“Yes please, thank you,” he said with a smile.

“Mehhh, don’t be gushy, jeez,” she replied, closing the door as she left.

Tom shook his head and turned his attention to Becky. She was a bit more aware today, but was still mostly shook up, and had a bandage on her head where the skin had broken that he had to make sure stayed clean. If she was still having the same amount of trouble in a few days, he’d call the hospital back up, but for now he was more concerned with making sure she was happy and comfortable while her body worked to heal herself.

Becky smiled at him and kissed his cheek saying, “You are such a good father.”

“I try my best,” he said, kissing her forehead.

“And you succeed!” she replied. Even in the dark room, her eyes shone brightly with love and warmth.

Tom was in love, really and truly, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do about it. He loved Jane, but he was done with that chapter of his life. He was always going to love her, even after the twisted version of her tried to kill him, but it was different now. Tom had accepted that her death wasn’t his fault, and he’d accepted that he needed to move on or risk being caught in the past forever. Becky was the only other person in his life he’d ever loved that deeply, that truly, and that sort of love never went away, no matter what.

When Becky was better, more put together, they’d talk about it, but for now he was content with cuddling up with her in bed and turning on the hallmark channel to watch shitty romance movies. They had time, never as much as you hoped, but they did have time, and he was happy to spend his time with Becky Barnes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Those of you with your theories will enjoy this chapter, happy to see y'all. Also I was correct that exactly three people understood my message, more may now, considering the first scene.
> 
> Seriously though Web Tied Asides has canon scenes and such that either didn't make the cut for the fic or were prompted. Go check it out!


	24. You Left Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PEIPs have a meeting, on a Saturday, because of course they do. Ted invites Deb over to hang out so she doesn't have to be stuck at Bill's alone for an afternoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all are doing well! Sorry chapters have been slightly more irregular, I've been posted in WTA roughly every other day, and yesterday I just didn't feel like writing, and sometimes it be like that. It is currently almost five am and I am tired, sorry if quality isn't the best, but I wanted to get something out to you guys so you have something to read.
> 
> The chapter title challenge is still happening! If you can name every song each title of the stories come from, I will fill a prompt for you, posted in Web Tied Asides. There are a few exceptions, such as smut and permanent death, but otherwise I will likely fill it.
> 
> Warnings! I don't actually think I have any this chapter it's pretty tame. Ted gets sad towards the end but eh it's Ted that's expected. You will see I added the tag 'canonical character death' and I want to assure you that it IS NOT ETHAN. There are a few people who die in Black Friday who will die when we get to Black Friday, and I want to tag accordingly. Ethan is not one of them, it only applies to a couple people, like Linda who literally cannot live for them to succeed.

“He's a wiggly snig  
And a sniggly wiggly (Yeah!)  
A fwendy-wend  
That makes you giggly!  
He's an underwater creature from outta this world  
A bestest fwendy-wend  
To-”

John paused the commercial and sat the remote down on the table. “Ladies, Gentlemen, and Fair Folk, here is our enemy.”

“A fucking doll?” Tom asked. “Also, why the hell am I here?”

“My mentor likes you and wants you to fill her position now that she’s retired,” Xander explained.

Tom stared at Xander for a moment before pointing at the television in the conference room. “Okaayy, but that is literally a children’s toy.”

“On the contrary, it is an interdimensional being seeking to enter our reality using the dolls,” John said.

Xander pulled out covered petri dishes with green fluff inside and placed them on the table. “This fluff, matching that of the doll if all is to be believed, came from the ectoplasm of the ghosts. We believe he was the one who broke the portal, temporarily killing me and allowing the ghosts to exist.”

“To cause chaos?” Schaeffer asked.

“That is one reason, yes. The other was to pave the way for his arrival. His strongest minion, a man formerly named Colonel Wilbur Cross was freed from the Black and White and allowed freedom of movement in order to create this commercial and start planting the seeds in the minds of those affected,” John explained.

“Question, why am I here? I am not nearly high enough rank to be in this meeting,” Emma said.

“Same reason I’m here, Em, and I don’t even work here yet. We’re ‘special’ and ‘useful’,” Lex replied.

“Precisely, Lex. Emma, as the Heart, Wiggly wants you dead specifically, or bent to his will. You are good enough and strong enough that you will never truly be entirely under his spell, so you must die, and be replaced by a Heart who worships Wiggly. Lex, your interdimensional abilities will be incredibly useful in this fight. You are the strongest in this ability that I have ever seen, you may be the only one able to stop him,” John said.

“We aren’t sending Lex into the front lines,” Tom said. “I’m her dad, I’m not letting that happen.”

“We’re getting a shipment of Wiggly dolls in for Black Friday, and I’m set to work that day, I’m gonna be on the front lines whether you want me to be or not,” Lex said.

“It will be Lex’s first field assignment,” John agreed. “Unfortunately, Tom, we do not live in a world that is safe for our children. You also, unfortunately, have very gifted and special children who are destined to be in the midst of problems regardless of how prepared they may be. The universe was going to find a way to get Lex to the mall on Black Friday no matter what, it already did by having her boss schedule her. The best we can do is to prepare her for the fight and give her what she needs.”

“Yes, we aren’t going to send her in there alone. Ethan Green is in the process of joining PEIP’s special training so he can assist, and Tom, I can’t imagine anyone better to put on the ground to assist her as well, other than you,” Xander said. “While that is happening, Emma, Paul, Hannah, and Tim will be here, safe, either in this building or in your home, given that it’s on base. We can’t risk him getting Emma or Hannah, not with Emma’s position as the Heart and Hannah’s sight. Tim, of course, needs to be here as your child.”

“So I’ll be in the field… You want me to be a field agent for the day,” Tom said.

“If you accept. Ethan, as her Guardian, will be able to protect her well, but having a Warrior there as well will also help, especially because you’re her father,” Xander said.

“Of course I accept! I have one condition though, I have a partner. We need a medic, in case anything goes south. Becky’s got the medical training, and the PEIP training, and if I’m a Warrior she’s got a soul even better than mine, I need her by my side,” Tom stated.

John nodded. He was standing at the head of the table with his hands on either side of his notes. “A medic would be important, yes. We’ll also make sure she has any medical supplies she might need, just to be safe.”

“What am I supposed to do, exactly?” Lex asked.

Nobody responded right away, and that caused Lex, Tom, and Emma to look at each other nervously. “We… currently… don’t know. That isn’t to say we _won’t_ know, just that we currently don’t. We know the dolls because they are an extension of Wiggly himself, are susceptible to fire, which will be useful, but we currently are unsure what exactly is going to happen on Black Friday, at all.”

“Wilbur was useful in his advice, but I don’t think even he knows exactly what is going to happen, or at least he didn’t last week,” John said.

“Wilbur? Same Wilbur as the one who is a minion of Wiggly?” Emma asked.

“The very same,” John said with a nod.

“He was possessing me at the time,” Xander added.

“He was indeed,” John said with another nod.

“As in your mentor, Wilbur? The guy with the plaque downstairs?” Lex asked.

“That is correct,” John said.

“He was also your adoptive father,” Schaeffer added.

“That is also correct,” John said, seeming to be getting slightly irritated now.

“So, your dad is a colonel who has a plaque downstairs, was the ghost freed by Wiggly to do his bidding, and gave you advice while possessing your husband… and you trust him?” Tom asked.

“Wilbur was himself at the time, he was freed from Wiggly’s clutches for a time on Halloween, and he saved Xander’s life by possessing him and repairing what was harmed due to his temporary death. The next time he is seen, he will be returned to Wiggly’s control and will therefore be against us. That said, with any luck, he will be freed when we kill the bastard, and will be able to rest in peace,” John said.

“... Hey, John? Quick question,” Lex said.

“Yes?”

“Why the _fuck_ are you like this?” Lex asked, causing snickers from the rest of the room. John just hung his head low and sighed.

\---

Having a busted shoulder was a bitch, and Ted wasn’t enjoying it. If he lived alone, it wouldn’t be so bad, but Charlotte was wheelchair bound and needed help with certain things, and occasionally needed to be picked up, or her chair needed to be picked up, and he just couldn’t do it right now. That made getting to work much more difficult than it usually was, along with any other things. There were just some general housekeeping things he just hadn’t been able to do for the last week, and they didn’t have a way for Charlotte to be able to do easily, so they were quite annoyed. So annoyed, in fact, that Ted was calling Bill.

“Bill, could you or your daughter come over for a bit today?” he asked. “Like, I’m sure you’ve got plans with all kinds of ladies and all that, but we are getting really annoyed by the fact that I can’t sweep the floor well right now.”

“First of all, the only ladies in my life right now are my daughter and her girlfriend. Second, Alice and I have a thing with her mom this afternoon, and Deb’s arms are still in slings for the next week, then she has physical therapy. Sorry, Ted,” Bill said.

“What’s Deb gonna be up to while you two are gone?” Ted asked.

“Nothing probably, TV. There isn’t much she can do right now,” Bill replied.

“If she wants to come over, she’s welcome to hang out with the rest of us mobile-y impaired people,” Ted suggested. “She might not be able to help with chores but it’ll get her out of your place for a while, I’m sure the kid would like that. Charlotte and I wouldn’t mind the company, she can help us pick out nursery shit online.”

“I’ll ask her. She, weirdly enough, thought you were funny and wanted to meet you again because you were, and I quote ‘one of the only cool adults ever’,” Bill replied. There were a few moments of silence before he returned. “We’ll drop her off in half an hour.”

“Great, have fun with your ex. If you need a beer later, I’ve got plenty since Charlotte can’t drink anymore,” Ted said. He was trying to be supportive, he wasn’t sure how well that translated, but he was trying.

“We’ll see, I’ll have to drive home afterwards so I don’t want to drink too much,” Bill said.

Exciting! Bill didn’t flat out turn him down! That was a step forward, right? “You could always have Alice drop you off and pick you up later. We aren’t gonna get hammered or anything, like a beer or two would be fine,”

“I might drop by then, if Alice will drive me, I just want to be safe,” Bill replied. “See you later, Ted.”

“See ya, Nerd,” he replied, hanging up.

Half an hour or so passed, and there was a knock at the door. Ted opened it to reveal the scruffy, curly haired lesbian he’d met a week prior. “How the fuck did you knock?” he asked, allowing her in.

“I used my head, asshole, no handed people make due,” she replied, flopping on the couch like she owned the place.

“Oh! Welcome, Deb! Are you hungry? We made some cookies last night!” Charlotte asked from the kitchen.

“Are they gluten free?” Deb asked.

“Well, no, I don’t think so,” Charlotte said. “What’s gluten?”

“It’s the shit in wheat and stuff, an ex of mine was allergic. Are you allergic?” Ted asked.

Deb nodded. “I am such an inconvenience, I know.”

“Oh nonsense!” Charlotte disagreed with a smile. “I’ll find you a snack you can eat, and we’ll make gluten free cookies for you next time! If you want to come over again, I mean, Bill can bring you the cookies if not. You deserve cookies.”

Ted didn’t like how genuinely surprised and happy that made Deb. That looked meant she wasn’t used to people doing that kind of shit for her. That, plus the shit she’d said before, and the ‘inconvenience’ thing… Ted knew exactly the sort of assholes her parents were. Thank God Bill took her in. “You’re gonna be drowning in baked goods you can eat before you know it. Charlotte loves baking, if you give her a reason to do it, she won’t stop. And her cookies? Best in the world.”

“You rascal,” Charlotte teased, “flattery will get you everywhere. Maybe I’ll make those blueberry turnovers you liked so much.”

“Make ‘em gluten free and Deb can try them too. I’ll go out tomorrow and get gluten free stuff for baking,” he said, flopping on one of the chairs in the living room.

“You don’t have to make anything special for me, really,” Deb assured.

“Bah, we’ll make it and you don’t have a choice,” Ted said, waving away her concern. “By the way, had any more visions or whatever?”

“Nah, luckily. I can’t wait to get officially freed from these things, it SUCKS not being able to do shit,” Deb said. “I can’t draw! I can’t write notes in school! Hell, texting hurts! It’s so annoying. The only good thing is that Alice gets to walk me between classes and carry my books and do notes for me.”

“How long have you two been dating?” Charlotte asked.

“About a year and a half, if you can count the whole Apotheosis thing. What about you two?” Deb asked.

Both of the adults went silent for a moment as if the topic was awkward. “Officially? About six months.”

“Unofficially?” Deb asked, intrigued.

“About two years,” he said, looking down, then back over at Charlotte who had gotten distracted by her cooking. “She was married. Her husband got infected, I stopped him from killing her by knocking his brain out, he didn’t fully die then and later killed Charlotte. He’s fully dead now, he was the one who possessed me and tried to kill us both.”

“That sucks, man,” Deb said with a nod.

“Yeah, it really did,” he agreed.

“Alice, Grace, and I were stuck in the high school. Alice tried to protect us, but they grabbed her through the door and infected her. Grace and I didn’t have any way to run,” Deb said, shrugging even though it hurt because she shrugged a lot and she couldn’t stop.

“I knew about Alice, ‘cause we were with Bill when she called her help. I’d just watched Charlotte die, I thought, and I said some shitty stuff to Bill about it,” Ted said. “Sorry you and your friend were stuck there too.”

“They broke down the door pretty soon after the call, maybe ten minutes? There was nothing Bill could have done,” Deb said.

“Still sucks though,” he said.

“Yeah, it really did,” she said with a smile, repeating his earlier words.

Ted smiled and rolled his eyes right back at her. “Bill was always complaining about you, but you aren’t that bad.”

“Damn, guess I have to put on my bitch face then,” she stated, making a dramatic face.

He snickered. “If you do that, I have to put on my dick face, and I don’t think we want that.”

“That’s not where you put it though, is it? ‘Cause otherwise your girlfriend wouldn’t be knocked up.”

Ted burst out laughing at that, leaning forward as he did. “Kid, you’re funny,” he said when he could finally speak again.

“Thanks, I’ll be here until Alice comes and picks me up,” Deb joked, causing him to shake his head and smile.

“When’s your birthday? Are you nineteen yet?” he asked.

“Nah, I’m a Gemini,” she replied, “why?”

“Birthday parties. I’m assuming we’re gonna be invited to yours eventually, considering we get invites to every birthday in the family we aren’t even sure how we became a part of,” Ted said. 

He made a note of her star sign, because Bill had said Deb’s parents had spoken as though she was adopted, and she was around the same age Ted’s daughter would be. She had bright blue eyes and a gluten allergy and the same fucking star sign as his kid. It didn’t necessarily mean she _was_ his kid, and he didn’t want to say anything too soon, especially since they weren’t sure she was adopted, and he’d only just started looking for his daughter. Still though, it was a hell of a coincidence. Deb was the right age, born at the right time, with bright blue eyes like his ex had, and a gluten allergy like his ex had… Plus, she had Ted’s sense of humor, and his inability to know what to say when, and liked art.

Bill had been the first one to suggest the possible relation, not long after their talk. They didn’t know if Deb was really adopted or not, but the similarities were clear. The problem with those similarities, however, was that none of them were physical. Nature versus nurture, it was impossible to know whether she could inherit his personality traits. She didn’t have his dark, straight hair, or his dark brown eyes. She had frizzy, curly red hair and blue eyes, Deb looked like his ex, but not like him. Deb wasn’t tall like he was, though she was lanky like him, and maybe had his cheekbones, but it was hard to tell. His nose, maybe? Maybe?

The only way they’d know is if there was an original birth certificate somewhere with his name on it, or if they did a blood test. That caused a slight problem for them, because Deb genuinely had no interest in that moment of finding out if she was even adopted. He couldn’t blame the kid, not after what she went through, and he didn’t want to push her to consider something that might not even be the truth only to find out he wasn’t her father after all. Ted was too much of a coward to say anything anyway, the fear of being wrong was too strong. Right then though, he could pretend, he and Charlotte could pretend, and maybe that would ease the ache he felt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't fit in the Bill scene, but something similar will happen eventually, not next chapter but maybe the chapter after.


	25. Break from the Madness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xander won't go to bed so John gets creative. Bill throws an office party for Ted and Charlotte, in honor of their baby. Wiggly decided to take advantage of Wilbur's freedom of movement in order to torment both him and his fathers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! The first scene takes place around midnight, the second takes place around noon, and the third takes place sometime in the evening of the same day. The third scene will NOT make much sense if you have not read the foundation of PEIP chapter of Web Tied Asides, but for those of you who do not feel like reading that long thing, here is a summary of what's important for this scene:  
> Owen was controlled by an alien who directly fucked with his brain. Curt founded PEIP to fight aliens and save Owen. When he was saved, he helped Curt create PEIP and mostly headed the Intelligence and Research division, what Xander is now in charge of. They adopted Wilbur in 1964 when he was four years old. Because of his young age, they are the only parents he remembers. 
> 
> The chapter title challenge is still going on! If you can name the song that each chapter title comes from, I will fulfill a prompt for you, as long as it is something I can comfortably write. Those prompts are filled in Web Tied Asides, and are all canon in this universe.
> 
> Warnings! The third scene has Wilbur acting like a dick and being quite upset about it. He is also tortured. It's a real angsty scene my dudes.

Working at PEIP came with certain expectations for oddities. Retirement was an honor to achieve, because a lot of people didn’t. It was far more likely that injury or death would cause an early end to a career. That was explained before they even began working there, during the interview. It was something everyone who worked there knew, something they lived with every day, but lived with in order to protect Hatchetfield and the world as a whole.

So, all in all, Xander was both used to and prepared for weird events. It didn’t make recovery any easier though. Sure, he felt fine, he was able to get back to work without issue, but there were other problems. Xander didn’t remember roughly a month of his life, and had spent that time with his soul being pulled at. He felt tired, deep to his core, and that was to be expected. Though he was no longer being pulled towards the portal, he could still see the energy that was flowing from it.

It was fascinating. He’d known energy flowed from it, of course. Xander was the top expert on the portal that was still alive and working in the field, as far as the Americans were aware. This was, in a lot of ways, his life’s work. Though there was far more about the Black and White that he didn’t know what he did, Xander was one of the only people in the world who understood the science behind it. John knew a great deal about how it worked from a metaphysical standpoint due to his connection to it, but Xander understood the science.

Having his wits about him now allowed him to actually study the energy, which he was doing enthusiastically rather than answering John’s questions about if he was alright. His notes from the previous month made little sense, but using what he could from them allowed him to push forward with his research. Should he be resting? Maybe. But science! There was math to do! Observations to make! When you’re the only one who can see a strange phenomenon, and that ability will likely fade soon, you have a responsibility to help improve the science! At least at PEIP anyway.

During the past month, between when the portal broke and Halloween, the portal had taken to shining purple with hints of green on top of the rippling Black and White it normally shone. Since Halloween, however, the purple had entirely disappeared, replaced with the vibrant, ugly green that had been hiding inside of it, the same green as the fluff from the ectoplasm samples. 

Xander hypothesized that the purple was the ghostly energy, being controlled by the streaks of green belonging to Wiggly, and that now, with the ghosts gone, along with the purple, Wiggly’s influence had entirely taken over the portal. John had said they couldn’t send the president through, which was a really weird thing to suggest out of nowhere, but Xander had to agree. It was likely that if they sent anyone in right now, they would go directly into Wiggly’s realm of control in the Black and White.

“Xander, come to bed,” John said from the doorway of the office.

“I’m working,” he replied.

“You’ve been working every hour you’ve been awake for the last week, come to bed,” John repeated.

“I’m onto something here, I know it,” he muttered.

John strided across the room and stood beside Xander’s chair. “If you will not agree to come, I will have to resort to another form of persuasion.”

“You better fucking not” Xander warned.

John didn’t listen, and instead pulled Xander’s chair out from the desk, hooked his arms around Xander’s knees and chest, and threw him over his shoulder. Xander laughed and wriggled in his hold, not enough to hurt either of them but enough for his protest to be known as John carried him across the hall to their bedroom. Upon reaching the bed, he fell sideways on it, depositing them both onto the covers.

“How dare you,” Xander said, unable to stop smiling. “I am very mad, I’ll have you know, I am super mad right now.”

“Get under the covers,” John replied with a smile of his own, pulling the sheets of the bed back.

“You can’t make me. I’m going to walk right back to the office and you can’t stop me,” Xander said as he crawled up to the head of his side of the bed and laid down.

“Of course not,” John said, pulling the covers over them and turning out the bedside lamp. “Goodnight, Xander. I love you.”

“Love you too, Goofball,” said Xander, kissing John as he cuddled in for the night.

\---

When Bill had come up with the idea of throwing a little party for Ted and Charlotte at the office, he had known two things immediately. The first was that Mr. Davidson would approve it, and want to take part, whether that would end well or not. The second was that he would have to plan the entire thing himself. Bill loved Paul, but he knew better than to ask him for assistance in party planning. Alice’s tenth birthday was warning enough against that. It wasn’t hard, he’d told everyone to bring a gift, and something food related. He’d put up decorations (Paul had helped with that part, he was good at decorating, just not planning).

It was nice! The break room had baby blue, pink, and white ribbons all over the place, looking like that one pride flag Alice had shown him, though he couldn’t remember which one it was. There was soda, chips, and a cake, and a pile or gifts Bill had secretly obtained over the day from the others in the office. Now that everything was ready, it was time to begin.

“Lunch break!” Bill called.

“You’re right, Bill, it’s lunch time. Let’s all go to the break room and get our food,” Paul said in the most robotic and obviously up to something voice Bill had ever heard. The boy just could not lie or hide anything, he’d never been able to, never would be able to.

Bill peeked out of the break room and saw that Ted had obviously noticed something was up, but seemed unsure as to what to do about it. Charlotte, meanwhile, hadn’t seemed to notice anyone had actually said anything at all, continuing to work. God damn these idiots, he tries to be nice one time and they can’t even make his job easier.

“Yes! Lunch time!” Melissa said, heading into Davidson’s office with paperwork before heading out and into the break room.

“Company lunch break, we’re all eating together right now in the break room, no if, ands, or buts. Group bonding time,” Mr. Davidson said, clapping a hand on Ted’s shoulder before strutting into the room in a gait that just screamed ‘I’m up to something’.

Charlotte seemed to realize something was going on at that, and looked to Ted with confusion. Ted just shrugged and made an ‘I don’t know’ face before following Paul into the break room, followed by Charlotte. When they entered, Charlotte gasped, her hands leaving her chair’s wheels to cover her mouth in surprise. Ted looked incredibly confused, then to Bill like he expected an explanation.

“Surprise! We’re throwing you a party to celebrate the baby!” Bill said, cheerfully but awkwardly.

“Seriously?” Ted asked, now standing behind Charlotte so he could push her inside.

“Seriously. It was Bill’s idea, he wanted to do something for you guys. I helped decorate,” Paul said, rocking back and forth on his feet.

“Yes, congratulations!” Mr. Davidson said. “You have forty five minutes to celebrate and open your gifts. Lunch is also expected to be eaten during this time.”

“Oh this is wonderful,” Charlotte said, wiping away tears. “You’re all being so nice.”

“Of course! Our very own office baby!” Melissa said cheerfully.

The group decided to eat before opening the gifts, and they tried their best to have casual conversation, despite their boss’s presence. Bill had no idea why Paul had been so awkward around Mr. Davidson since the Apotheosis, but it was just generally weird to hang out with him and Melissa. Melissa was sweet and all, but she was in her 20s and had better things to do than hanging out with a bunch of people in their 30s talking about mortgages and such. Davidson tried to be a cool boss, but he was still their boss, and no matter how friendly he acted, it was all because he was trying to make them work better.

Still, it was pleasant, they talked about day to day life events, and about baby related things. Ted was quiet for once, which concerned Bill, but he realized the guy was probably just uncomfortable because people didn’t usually talk with him like this. They were usually busy rolling their eyes at him. He wasn’t that bad, really. Bill had actually enjoyed having a beer with him on Saturday, and hanging out with Charlotte as well. Having more friends was better for all of them.

“Gift time!” Melissa said, bringing the pile to the table.

“Okay, there’s two gifts from Emma and I, one for each of you. Emma and I picked them out together, and we picked the first one and then thought we should get a matching one for the other one of you, so… yeah, two,” Paul said, handing them each a rectangular wrapped item.

Both turned out to be books, Ted’s being titled ‘Dad Jokes for New Dads: Embarrass Your Kids Early!’ and Charlotte’s being titled ‘Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay: And Other Things I Had to Learn as a New Mom’. They laughed and thanked Paul, though Ted looked genuinely touched by the gift. Bill couldn’t help but imagine Ted was probably thinking about how he wasn't technically a ‘new dad’ but no one was going to say anything. The office didn’t need to know about all that.

“Open mine next,” Davidson said, placing the gift between the parents to be.

Inside the wrapping paper was a onesie that said ‘Future Regional Manager’ on it. Everyone stifled a laugh, unsure if it was a joke gift or not. They thanked him for it, snickering under their breath at the idea of putting their child in that outfit. Bill wasn’t even sure if any stores sold that onesie, he thought Davidson might have had it specially made. THAT made Bill snicker, because wow. Melissa’s gift was… interesting. She gave them postpartum pads. They politely thanked her, and she smiled brightly at them, nodding enthusiastically. It was a good gift, but not at all what they’d expected to receive.

Bill’s turn came last, and he handed it to Ted personally. Inside the bag was a small book of handwritten advice and suggestions he made for them, things he’d learned from raising Alice through every challenge life had thrown at him. They could buy all the advice books in the world, but none of them were gonna be made specifically for Ted and Charlotte, how Bill knew them to be and challenges he expected they would have to face. It was the best gift he could offer them.

Touched, Charlotte wiped away another tear and smiled at Bill. “Thank you. This is wonderful.”

“Yeah, really, you didn’t have to do all this for us,” Ted said, flipping through the book.

“Hey, what are friends for?” Bill replied with a warm smile. They were friends after all, and he was going to help them however he could.

\---

Much to Wilbur’s surprise, his entire sense of self had not been destroyed once again as of yet. He knew it was because Wiggly was toying with him and using it to make his suffering even worse. Wilbur had gone against him, and had given John information that could very well lead to Wiggly’s loss on Black Friday. There was Hell to pay, and he was helpless to stop it. He couldn’t protect himself in any way, couldn’t even fight him. Wiggly had a grip on every part of his being, and there was nothing he could do to change that.

“You know, my best buddy wud, I think this play time hasn’t been enough to teach you a lesson. I think we need to have a special playtime, don’t you? One that will really make you understand. You are mine, Wiley, my little toy. I can play with you however I like. And you know what? I think your daddies deserve a visit. It’s been such a long time since you went away, after all,” Wiggly said, before breaking into laughter.

Having no control over your body, even when you don’t have a fully real body, was incredibly strange. Wilbur could feel himself moving, but he had no control over his actions, or his mouth it seemed. Wiggly had left him entirely coherent and aware, but totally under his control as he stood in his parents’ home. He couldn’t stop the rising panic, afraid of what Wiggly would have him do to his fathers, but there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop himself.

One of his fathers, Owen, was sitting in a chair in their living room, staring blankly into the distance. Wilbur remembered as a child, how he would have times where his mind lost its connection due to the alien that had messed with his brain. Now, it seemed he wasn’t so easily woken. Wiggly moved Wilbur to kneel before him and place a hand on his knee. That got his attention it seemed, though the elderly man just looked incredibly confused and lost. The expression hurt Wilbur to his core, but there was nothing he could do to stop whatever Wiggly was going to do.

“Hey there, Daddy-O, remember me?” Wiggly asked through Wilbur’s lips.

“Wiley?” Dad-O asked, placing a shaking hand on the hand on his knee. “Is it really you?”

“It’s me, Dad, can you tell me what year it is?” he asked through sign. Wilbur didn’t know what that question meant, but he could hazard a guess, and that killed him. Thirteen years, he’d been gone thirteen years and his dads were in their eighties now. He’d lost so much time with them.

Owen paused, trying to find an answer to the question in his fuddled mind. “2006.”

Thirteen years ago. He was confused. He thought it was thirteen years ago because Wilbur hadn’t aged a day. Wilbur’s heart ached at that fact. His body didn’t react like that though, a Cheshire grin spreading across his face. “Nuh-uh, it’s 2019. I died, remember? All the way back in 2006, I died, because of the organization you and your husband created. Don’t you remember? I died because of you. Because of your science division. Don’t you remember?” Wiggly said and signed.

Owen’s hand was pulled away and his eyes widened, panicked. “No! No, it’s 2006, it’s 2006, I remember it I remember 2006, I know it’s 2006,” he said, shaking.

“But it isn’t, is it? Your fucked up brain can put that much together, can’t it? Thirteen years of torment in the Black and White because you just had to have a look. This is your fault. I died because of you. I suffered because of you. You were never a father to me, you never loved me. You never even wanted me, did you?” Wiggly hissed, using Wilbur’s tone and phrasing as best as he could as he continued signing.

“No!” Owen shouted, trying to push him away.

“Owen, what-” a new voice asked from the doorway. Wilbur’s head turned to look, and saw his other father standing there.

He couldn’t bear the pain he was causing his father, the lies coming from his mouth. In his mind, he was screaming, begging Curt to find a way to free him, for his father to save him, but his mouth wouldn’t obey. Wilbur didn’t want to know what he was going to do to his other father, he didn’t want to look, didn’t want to be forced into awareness anymore to see these deeds, but he had no control. The only one who had control was Wiggly. Wiggly could do anything, make him do anything. NO! No, he couldn’t think like that, he couldn’t let Wiggly break him again.

Wiggly stood Wilbur up and had his smile continue. “Hello there, remember me, Daddy-C?”

Curt pulled a gun out of somewhere and pointed it at Wilbur. “You aren’t my son, my son died thirteen years ago. Stop using his appearance and show yourself, act like a man instead of a coward, hiding behind a dead man's face.”

“But I am Wiley, Dad,” Wiggly said, holding his hands up. “Johnny fucked up the portal, and I’ve been freed after thirteen years of torment in the Black and White. Aren’t you happy to see me?”

“I know my son, I know you aren’t him. You’re wearing him like a skin, or piloting him like a marionette. I was the commander of PEIP for forty years, I know this shit better than anybody. Cut the crap. Who are you?” Curt asked.

Wiggly did his signature laugh and Curt turned off the safety on the gun. “My name is Wiggly. Wiley is my very best buddy wud. I took him when he entered the Black and White, prevented him from being able to escape, and then took him apart as he dissolved, playing with all of his pieces until I got bored of him. I put him back together, good as new, and got him to Earth. His mind is in tatters, his soul is mine. He’s screaming right now, screaming at you to save him, screaming at me to spare you both. Do you want to hear?”

“Let him go, now,” Curt said evenly, aiming directly for his head.

Wilbur suddenly found himself in the driver’s seat again, though Wiggly was still there just as much as he had been before. He collapsed to his hands and knees, shaking and sobbing, unable to do anything else after the last week and a half, then what he’d been forced to say to Owen. “Dad, please, please save me, I can’t do this again, I can’t fight him. He’s got me, every part of me, Daddy-C, I can’t stop him, he’s gonna make me hurt Johnny, please,” he begged through his sobs.

Curt’s hands shook, but he remained stoically standing there. “I know this is just a ploy to get me to trust you, Wiggly. A far smarter enemy did something similar years ago, I didn’t fall for it then, I won’t fall for it now.”

It was then that Wilbur realized Wiggly’s play with Curt was exactly what he was doing. He was playing directly into his hand and causing his father even more suffering than Wiggly ever could. “He’s makin’ me do this, he’s making me hurt you like this, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I can’t-I can’t stop him, I have no power. I’m losing my grip again, I can’t keep myself much longer. I’m hurtin’ you, I got Dad-O all upset, I- oh god, he’s all messed up ‘cause of me, isn’t he? Wiggly’s tellin’ me he is, I- I’m sorry. I’m sorry, please, this isn’t me, don’t remember me like this, this is him. He tortured me for years, Dad, he did so much, I can’t- years, Daddy-C, I can’t-” Wilbur begged.

Curt’s hands shook harder, far too much to be able to hit Wilbur if he tried. Wilbur knew Wiggly wasn’t going to have him attack either of them physically, that wouldn’t have the same punch as his screaming and begging. He couldn’t help it though. His fathers were right there and after thirteen years of torment all he wanted was for them to save him. They couldn’t though. No one could save him, he was Wiggly’s slave and pawn, there was nothing he could do to stop him. He couldn’t even stop crying if Wiggly didn’t want him to.

“If you are my son, know that Owen and I still love you with every fiber of our beings. We both forgive you for anything Wiggly makes you do. It isn’t your fault. Owen’s mind was gonna go eventually, that isn’t your fault. It isn’t your fault you died, it isn’t your fault you’re being controlled. John’s gonna save you, believe in him, and stay strong. You’re brave, and good, Wilbur, you are a very good man. Just stay strong until Johnny can save you,” Curt said, his voice wet with emotion.

Wiggly suddenly cut off Wilbur’s crying and looked up at Curt with that smile, saying, “Do you want to hear what it sounds like when I play with him?” Wiggly didn’t give him a chance to respond as Wilbur was returned to the driver’s seat again, just in time for the familiar feeling of Wiggly’s ‘play’ to take over every part of his existence. Wilbur collapsed on the ground and screamed as it felt like everything that made him up was burning and freezing, being pulled apart and squished together all at once.

“Wiley!” Curt shouted, abandoning the gun and landing on his knees by his son’s side.

There was nothing he could do but watch as Wilbur rolled back and forth from the pain, screaming as loudly as he could in that reality. There was nothing Wilbur could do to stop or make Curt feel less upset by the sight he was being forced to see. He was helpless, helpless to the pain and helpless to Wiggly as a whole. Curt was helpless too, there was nothing his father could do but watch. The only one with any power was Wiggly, he was the only one who ever had power.

How had Wiley forgotten that? Wiggly was the only one who was ever in control, he knew everything and if Wiley did as he asked, all would be well. No one could save him, how could they? Wiggly controlled everything, including every part of him. He wasn’t a person, it was so silly to imagine that he was. How could he forget that he was nothing more than a pawn? It was so silly. Wiley didn’t recognize where he was, or who was standing over him. He wasn’t allowed to. If he wasn’t allowed to do something, he simply couldn’t do it. Wiggly controlled everything he had ever been after all.

Wilbur’s screams and sobs of pain slowly morphed into mad laughter as he lost his grip on his soul, mind, and sense of self, his eyes once more glowing green. He was Wiley, and that was all he needed to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wilbur :(. Poor guy, doesn't deserve all this, but Wiggly is not a kind being. The only reason Curt says John will fix the problem rather than HE will fix the problem is because he's in his mid eighties or so, and just can't do all that stuff anymore.
> 
> On another note, John and Xander are cute.


	26. Flash! Bang! Nothing's the Same!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paul is an anxious nerd and decides to have a Major Conversation with Emma. Lex and the Crew make a stupid decision. Tom and Lex have a fight and he has a flashback as a result.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Facts: Paul is a nerd, Emma loves nerds, teens make bad decisions. Lex loves Tom, she does, but she's still working through the fact that she has an actual parental figure who cares now and doesn't always know how to handle being told what to do.
> 
> Chapter title challenge is still happening! If you can name the song each chapter title comes from, I will fill a prompt for you over in Web Tied Asides, as long as I am comfortable with the prompt.
> 
> Warnings! Okay, scene one should be okay, Paul is nervous though. Scene two is all teenage shenanigans. Scene three is where the problems lie. It includes: mentions of spiders, arguing, a flashback to war, mentions of violence, somewhat graphic descriptions of war, disillusionment, general anti-military sentiment, mentions of death. It's not a fun time for Tom, unfortunately. If you aren't in a good place to read it don't worry, that's what the warnings are for! It doesn't impact the story severely if you can't read it.

Paul was nervous. That was not an unusual feeling for him, nervousness was like a program always running in the background of his computer, always there but not usually in any way that disrupts the usage of the device until it decided to freak out and crash the system. Still, at the moment he was noticeably nervous because he wanted to have a _conversation_ with Emma when she got home from her classes. Paul disliked anything that could lead to disagreement and always put his head down and avoided it. This conversation needed to happen though, eventually. He couldn’t run from it forever.

He heard the front door open and close as Emma entered, putting her coat and hat on the coat rack. “There was a fight today, it was wild,” she said as soon as she entered.

“What?” Paul asked. Without context there was no way of knowing if she meant at work in the labs of PEIP or at school. Neither was particularly good and both could potentially cause problems, but Emma didn’t sound concerned so that was good? Right?

“Two meatheads just started throwing punches. I have no context other than football, but like, why?” she explained as she entered the kitchen. Emma pulled him down so she could kiss his cheek while he flipped the chicken over in the pan.

He smiled at her as she did. Paul wondered if he would ever get to a point where that cheek kiss of greeting after a long day wouldn’t make him feel all giddy inside. He doubted it. “Could have been worse. It could have been some alien thing at work making people fight.”

“That’s definitely true,” Emma said, taking her hair out of its ponytail. “What’s for dinner?”

“Chicken tenders and macaroni,” Paul replied.

“Oh you’re treating me,” Emma teased, stirring the pot of noodles.

He was, really. It was a simple meal but one of Emma’s favorites and he wanted her to be in a good mood when he brought up The Conversation over dinner. Emma wasn’t the type to like labels or being tied down or anything, they’d grown through that together over the past few months, but she had always been like that. A key part of her personality, her desire for freedom wasn’t going to change just because she decided he was good enough to tie herself to while being free. He knew these sorts of conversations were always difficult for her but it needed to happen regardless.

“Bill’s making a club for dads,” Paul said after realizing he’d lapsed into silence.

“Oh?” she asked. “What exactly does that mean?”

“He’s trying to get Tom and Ted together to talk about dad related things. I think he’s just trying to form a friend group with regularly scheduled meeting times?” Paul said.

“If he’s doing that, I’ll make a club for Becky, Charlotte and I where we can shit talk about the guys,” Emma replied, “and other stuff, just have ‘gal time’ or whatever. That’s what women in their thirties do, right?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Paul said with a smile.

“It’ll be nice. None of us really have any family to turn to for support so we can make our own support system for advice and stuff,” Emma said, draining the pasta.

“If you’re doing that, what do I do?” Paul asked.

“You can stay home and relax. I don’t think you’d feel comfortable hanging out with us, unfortunately,” she said.

“But I miss you when you aren’t home,” he said with a frown.

Emma pulled him down for another cheek kiss before returning to the cooking. “You can always come along anyway if you want, or join the boys in their ‘dad time’,” she suggested.

“Maybe I will. Ted will tease me but that’s just how Ted is,” Paul agreed, putting the chicken on a plate and sitting it on the kitchen table.

Emma put the macaroni in a bowl on the table and sat down across from Paul. “How was your day?” she asked. “I told you the interesting thing in mine.”

“I… actually have something to talk to you about…” Paul said awkwardly as he cut up his chicken.

She looked up at him with a mixture of confusion and concern. “What’s up?”

“I… well, I was wondering if… I mean, we’re- you know we’re… together…” Paul said, very aware that he hadn’t gotten his message across in the slightest.

“... Yeess? I know we’re together,” Emma agreed with a slow nod, still confused and concerned but encouraging him to continue.

“I just- well, because we’re together-... I was just wondering if well, you know, you’d ever thought about… well… we’ve got a lot of rooms in this house, and it’s really quiet, and we’re together… I was just… I was wondering if… if you’d ever thought about maybe… I mean, Tom seems happy, and I don’t, I mean-”

“Are you asking me if I want to have kids at some point?” Emma cut in.

Relieved that she understood what he was getting at and that therefore he did not have to finish his statement, Paul nodded. “I just-... you know? I’ve always wanted kids, and I love you, and I would want to have kids with you?”

Emma stared at him for a moment before smiling and shaking her head. “You’re such a dork.”

“What?” Paul asked, confused.

“Yeah, we can have kids, just not yet, okay? I want to get my undergrad done before having any kids,” she said. “How many do you want? Personally I say one or two.”

“One or two is my choice as well,” he agreed in a high voice, eating his food quickly because he wasn’t sure how else to react to the conversation going so well.

“Okay, great. You don’t need to worry so much about this stuff, we’re in it together here,” Emma said.

“I know, you’re right. We’re in this together,” Paul agreed, reaching out and holding her hand as they ate their dinner.

\---

“I hate living in Michigan,” Deb stated. “It’s too fucking cold for too much of the year.”

“Deb, you’ve literally never lived anywhere else, you can’t complain,” Grace stated.

It was now two weeks into November and far too cold to hand out outside if you were a normal and sane human being. That was why the six teens were sitting in the park while the snow fell hard around them. Was it a good idea? No. Were they dumb teenagers who decided that it was a good idea? Yes. A fact that helped nothing was that it was also getting dark out. Great. Tom was going to be sooo happy whe she got home with drenched clothes and a cold.

“I can’t complain? We’re sitting outside in a fucking blizzard!” Deb complained.

“This isn’t a blizzard, this is just a storm,” Grace said.

“We should probably go inside,” Lex disagreed.

“The snow _is_ falling heavier,” Ethan said, holding out his gloved hand to catch snow in it.

“It’s so pretty though,” Alice sighed.

“It’s pretty, but if we don’t get out of here soon we’ll be buried in it,” Lex said snarkily.

“My chest hurts,” Oliver stated.

“That’s because you have asthma and we’re sitting outside in the cold,” Ethan said, rolling his eyes.

Lex stood up from the bench and pulled Ethan and Oliver off as well. “We’re leaving.”

“Thank you,” Oliver said quickly.

“Who’s idea was this anyway?!” Deb cried, following after her friends.

“I blame Grace!” Alice said, wrapping an arm around Deb.

“Maybe it was my idea, but we didn’t have to actually do it!” Grace replied with a laugh as the group headed back to the car.

“It was a bad idea!” Deb laughed.

“It was!” Oliver agreed.

“Thanks!” Grace exclaimed, still smiling.

“It was fun to throw the snowballs at the cop down the hill though,” Lex said. “To be entirely fair, it was hilarious.”

They’d been hiding behind the snowy bench and throwing snowballs down the hill at one of the officers who would confiscate their weed even after it was legalized in their state. It was only fair. The guy didn’t come after them for the snowballs because he’d have to trek up the snowy hill and he wasn’t about to do that. Revenge was sweet.

Now to think of an explanation for Tom as to why she was soaked, covered in snow, and incredibly stuffed up. Sure, she could tell him the truth, but where was the fun in that? It was very clear they’d been chilling outside somewhere, but maybe he didn’t need to know about her successful plan to throw snowballs at a cop. Tom was a chill guy but he probably didn’t need to know about the whole rivalry between her, Ethan, Deb, and a select group of the police department over weed.

\---

“Spider bites can do a lot of different things. The Black Widow Spider’s venom attacks the nerves, causing them to contract repeatedly. The Brown Recluse Spider’s venom can make red blood cells burst. The Brazillian Wandering Spider’s bite causes painful erect-”

“Honey, I love you, but let’s not talk about male physical reactions to things at the dinner table, please,” Tom said as Becky hid her face in her hand. “I love hearing all about spiders, but that specific thing is not great to talk about right now.”

Hannah ducked her head, a bit embarrassed but knowing they weren’t upset with her. She continued on with her explanation of spider bites soon after, once she’d recovered from the embarrassment. Tom was proud of her, for talking as much as she did and knowing as much as she did about spiders. He was thinking about getting her a pet spider for Christmas, but he wasn’t sure how to go about doing that without her knowing. When you kid could basically read thoughts and/or see the future, surprises were quite difficult.

“S-sorry I’m late,” Lex called as she entered the house.

“Come eat!” he called back.

When she came over, looking like a freezing, wet dog, Tom raised an eyebrow, “Why are you soaked when it’s 20 degrees outside?”

“We w-were m-making snowmen,” Lex stated as she sat down at the table.

“Oh, no no no, go change your clothes, you’ll get hypothermia,” Tom said, pointing back towards the stairs. “And when you come back down you’d better give me the real reason you were out past dinner on a night you were supposed to help cook and came home soaking wet and shaking.”

Lex threw him a mostly good natured middle finger and left to change. Tom rolled his eyes as she did, looking to Becky for any advice she could give.

“Be gentle, she’s making up for lost time,” Becky said.

“Yeah, she’s still gotta not give herself hypothermia!” Tom protested.

Soon Lex returned with dry, warm clothes on and sat down in her chair once more. “We went to the park. Grace wanted to take pictures of the snow.” Lex said, putting food on her plate.

“And you stayed out there for how long, in the middle of a snow storm?” Tom asked.

“We weren’t out there long, just long enough to get super damp,” Lex said. “It’s fine, we’re all fine. We were just hanging out.”

“And why were you late?” Tom asked.

“Because Oliver had an asthma attack and we thought about taking him to the hospital but then he told us to just take him home,” Lex said.

“And why did he have an asthma attack?” Tom asked.

“Because we were out in the cold, look, I get it! Shut up about it!” Lex said defensively.

Tom made a confused gesture around, totally lost. “Why are you upset with me?! You know we have rules in this home and you have to follow them, just like the kids. You nearly got your friend in the hospital because you decided to hang out in a snowstorm! As your father I’m allowed to discuss this!”

“Yeah well you aren’t really my dad, are you?” Lex asked angrily before realizing what she’d said. She stood up, took her plate, and stormed off, back up the stairs, slamming her door shut behind her.

Tom jumped at the sound and squeezed his eyes shut. He didn’t even have time to think about what she said, his mind too busy taking the ‘bang’ and pulling him back to the war, to the sounds of guns and explosives and screaming. He could feel the sand, the blood on his face from his fallen friend, he could barely breathe.

Green was dead in his arms and he was screaming for help and he knew, he knew it wasn’t real and that he wasn’t there, but that didn’t make it feel any less real. Green’s blood was on his uniform, it was on Tom’s gloves and his face and he couldn’t breathe. Every breath was gunpowder and sand and death and death and death and he was a part of it he was hurting people and his friend was dead in his arms.

Tom had joined the military because he was poor, because it seemed like it was the right thing to do. They promised him a future, they promised him opportunity after he did what they said, a chance to go to school and get paid for comradery. They promised him he’d be doing good, that they were doing good, that his son would have a better life because of his actions. Instead he was bleeding in a hole and the crumbled ruins of the jeep they’d been in before it hit an explosive, clutching the body of his only real friend in the army.

He’d shot people, he could still feel the weight of the gun in his hand, see the sight of their bleeding bodies. That wasn’t what he’d wanted. This wasn’t at all what he’d wanted. He’d wanted to be an engineer. He’d wanted to help people, to make the world better for his son, and now there he was, likely to die any moment as the fighting raged on around them.

Tom knew it wasn’t real, that he was home, that he’d been home for years and had a scar on his shoulder to prove it. He knew, he knew, he knew, but that didn’t stop everything around him from seeming so incredibly real. It was hard to imagine the world was real when nothing felt right and neither memory nor fact seemed to fit what he was experiencing. Tom felt arms around him now, those were real, he felt fingers stroking his hair, that was real. He could hear whispers, humming, soft beside his ear as he was gently rocked. That was real.

Becky?

Becky was real. It was Becky holding him, comforting him, he knew her fingers, her voice anywhere. Becky was real. Becky was there. If Becky was there, then the floor beneath him was his kitchen floor, he wasn’t bloody or wounded, he was safe. If Becky was there, he was safe.

Time moved strangely as he slowly began to feel like a part of the world again, as reality settled back in and the memories slipped away. They were sitting under the dining room table, she was holding him, his head in against her shoulder as she rocked him and hummed. The kids weren’t there, she must have told them to go, good. He could breathe again, slowly, he began to be able to breathe again. Tom was wearing his clothes from work. He was clean and fine. There was no blood, there was no sand, there were no guns or explosives, it was just his home, as safe as ever.

“Becky?” he asked, barely more than a whimper.

“I’m here, you’re safe, you’re okay,” Becky whispered, kissing his forehead gently.

“I love you,” he whispered, the adrenaline fading now, resulting in him feeling incredibly drained.

“I love you too,” she said softly, returning to her soft humming as she helped him through the rest of the way. When he was able, she helped him out from under the table, where he’d ended up in his panic.

Lex was leaning against the wall, looking down. “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice sounding wet, like she was about to cry. “I didn’t mean to- I didn’t mean to-”

“It was the slamming, Lex. That’s all,” Tom assured, holding onto Becky still, for comfort and stability. “I know you didn’t mean it, it wasn’t your fault. You ran off ‘cause you were upset with what you said. You’re still working on learning how to deal with authority, and that’s okay. We can talk about it tomorrow when we’re both calmed down. Can you get the kids to bed for me?”

Lex nodded. “I really am sorry.”

“I forgive you. No more slamming,” he said.

“No more slamming,” Lex agreed. “I’ll get them to bed, don’t worry. You two go rest.”

Tom nodded and held onto Becky’s arm as they went upstairs. Shit brain was shit, but it was going to be alright. Becky tucked them both into bed and turned on the tv to some stupid romance movie they could watch in silence has he took the time he needed to feel okay again. He was glad he had Becky in his life again. They needed to have the talk, really, they did, they needed to discuss officially dating, but once again something was in the way. Perhaps next time, yes, next time they would discuss it for sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tom has PTSD and while I do not have PTSD I don't want to ignore that fact or the root cause of it, which was probably only made worse by Jane's death.


	27. Why Not Find Out?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lex goes to John for some advice, he gives her a speech about the strength of the human heart and problems of morality, this is an accepted response. Deb looks through her paperwork and finds some interesting information. Ted was expecting a lazy afternoon and instead gets a daughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the radio silence! I've been working on a SAF story that will soon have the first chapter posted in which Curt doesn't kill Owen and instead brings him in. Owen's mental health is in shambles after everything Chimera did, and being put through what he was for four years, and Curt shall help him through. It will also include many flashback to their life together before. It will be called 'Tried and True' so keep an eye out!
> 
> If you can name the song each chapter title comes from, I will fill a prompt for you! I still owe someone a prompt and I am sorry, got distracted by 'Tried and True' because ADHD be like that. I will get there, soon. Hopefully. Sorry. I love you I promise, it will be written and one of the scenes will include John taking care of Xander after he got his wisdom teeth out, I promise.
> 
> Warnings! Shoot hmm... Mentions of past abuse in the last scene, but otherwise I think this chapter is just fairly soft? If I missed something let me know.

“I fucked up,” Lex sighed, pulling her knees up to her chest. She and Tom had talked about what happened, talked about what they had said and how they would move forward. That didn’t take away the guilt she felt for making him ‘remember bad things vividly’. Lex knew she had issues with authority, you don’t live the life she did and not end up with problems trusting and obeying people in power. That didn’t excuse anything, that was just a fact that she had to work through.

“Did you?” John asked as he smoked his cigarette.

With everything that had been going on, they had a lapse in meetings they were still trying to make up for. She’d instead been getting a great deal of training from the people on base to use if she needed to fight someone. Lex was absolutely certain that she was going to need to fight someone next week. Well, less than a week now, considering it was the weekend. Her fellow students were talking about how they were going to spend their break, and she was contemplating how she was going to stop a would-be god from destroying the earth.

That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. She’d never lived a normal life, she wasn’t about to start being upset about it now.

“I fought with Tom over something stupid and made him have a flashback,” she explained. “Can I have a cigarette?”

“No. Did you intend to cause him the flashback?” John asked, tapping his cigarette on the ashtray.

“You never let me have a cigarette,” Lex complained, sitting back in her chair. “I can buy my own, legally. I don’t even need a fake ID.”

“That is what happens when you are nineteen. You won’t buy anymore anyway. You got off of them after infection and your adoptive brother, as well as one of your friends, can’t be around cigarette smoke. You won’t buy any, you also won’t risk getting back on them because you know it could trigger an asthma attack in someone you care about,” John replied evenly.

“Yeah, well, I did trigger an asthma attack in one of my friends because I made a stupid decision and then Tom got upset because I made a stupid decision and was late getting home, and I yelled at him when I shouldn’t have, and I said he wasn’t my dad, and I slammed my door, and he had a flashback,” Lex said.

John replied with a, “Hm,” as he listened to her explanation of the events. Finally, he continued, saying, “Everyone makes mistakes in leadership, especially at the beginning, but even now. The events of Halloween and the weeks prior were due to my own actions and desire to save my husband. That was a… bad logistically bad decision, which we are still facing the consequences of today.

“As leaders, it’s our responsibility to protect and guide our people forward, because they look to us for direction and support. We can’t always make the right decisions, because we are human and therefore innately fallible. That isn’t a bad thing. There is nothing more powerful in the universe than the human heart, the human soul. Why do you think the Heart and the Soul always exist on our planet?”

“Because ‘there’s nothing more powerful in the universe than the human heart’?” Lex asked.

“Correct. Because, though we are all flawed, and capable of wrong, and capable of bad decisions, we are, at our core, trying to be good, trying to do what is right. Even people who do terrible things, the worst of people with altered logic, they have potential to change and grow and become better. Humanity, as a whole, is good. You can see it in every laughing child, every dancing couple, every group coming together to sing. We are flawed, our logic can be flawed, we can be tainted by outside forces which blankens our souls and make us do evil things, but everyone had potential to be good.

“When people let darkness in, when people rely more on their faults and desires than what is good and right, evil seeps in. It can cripple a person, make them do evil deeds. A society where those sorts of people lead is not itself all darkness and decay, but they are more likely to be swayed to it. Evil is a choice, Lex, a series of choices done by people who care more for their own desires and ends than the people as a whole. It is a conscious choice to hurt others, conscious choice to choose one's self over any other. That is what evil is.

“You are not evil. You made a poor choice, and you regret your decision. That does not make you bad. That does not mean the darkness of the universe has crept into your soul. It simply means you’re human. You will find yourself, in life, faced with many choices, many options, and you will not always make the right one. Sometimes things will go poorly because of something you did, sometimes people will die. That doesn’t make you a bad person, not if every decision you make is made with good intentions and a strong heart.

“Leaders have the responsibility to their followers to make a good example, to show the right way to be but we make mistakes just as often as any other. What matters when you make mistakes is how you address them and move past them. Your friends look to you for leadership and advice. They look to you for what their next steps should be. You need to tell them that it was a bad decision to do what you did, and that whatever it was will not happen again. When it comes to Tom, I assume you apologized. Tom will understand. He has a good head on his shoulders and cares about you three deeply. You care for him too, or you wouldn’t be upset. That love you share will guide you through this,” John concluded.

Lex was silent for a moment, having listened to his speech. He made good points, though she wasn’t entirely sold on the whole ‘everyone being good’ thing. Still, he made good points. His words were comforting. She wasn’t going to get everything right. She was going to make mistakes, but that was okay. Lex was only human, and that wasn’t a bad thing.

“You’re right,” she replied simply.

John nodded in agreement, taking another drag from his cigarette. “And I didn’t even need to understand the actual problems you caused to reach that conclusion.”

“Gee thanks,” Lex said, smiling now.

“I am nothing if not honest,” he replied, giving her a cheeky smile in return.

\---

Deb was scared. That was not uncommon for her, she had recently been diagnosed officially with anxiety and started actual medication for it rather than just smoking weed. And, well, she wasn’t necessarily _scared_. Scared wasn’t the right ‘feeling word’. Apprehensive? That was a bit closer. It was a state of unease that wasn’t fear, but a tight nervous energy in her chest. She didn’t want the answers she might get, but at the same time… She needed them.

The packet in her hand, the packet of papers her mother had prepared for her with her official papers, would, with any luck, have the answers to the question. Was she adopted? Part of Deb didn’t want to know, part of her didn’t want to find out. But… she needed to know, didn’t she? If she wasn’t, she needed to know. If she was? If she was… would she have someone out there who might want her? They put her up for adoption for a reason, they probably wouldn’t want her now, but… but times change, right? Things change. Maybe… Maybe.

Sitting there in a bedroom that suited a guy in college while staring at a manila envelope wasn’t helping. It wasn’t solving anything. She still had yet to build up the nerve to open it though. The possibilities left her frozen in place, that uncertainty. Either way, there was going to be a fall out. She was going to cry either way. Deb knew herself well enough to know she was going to cry either way. But staring at it wasn’t going to give her the answers, and she’d gotten the guts to take out the envelope in the first place, she couldn’t back down now.

Her shoulders hurt. That was mostly unrelated, but it was quite distracting. She’d recently gotten diagnosed with ADHD as well, so perhaps that had something to do with it. If she really was adopted, perhaps someone she was related to had ADHD and anxiety too. Maybe she got it from somewhere, she wasn’t as much of a screw up as she felt like she was. Maybe she had someone to blame.

Finally, mostly due to the distraction causing her to get bored of the stress, she built up the nerve to pull the elastic from around the circle thing and open the envelope. Deb spilled the papers inside of it onto her lap and started looking through them. The first one was her social security card. Oh good, she had one of those. That was important for college, apparently. There were some general school papers and such, and then she came across a birth certificate. It had her parents’ names on it.

Shit.

Deb sat it to the side and continued looking through. There were way too many papers in there for it to not have something else to say.

Adoption papers. That’s why there were too many things in the envelope. She’d included her adoption papers.

A second birth certificate.

Lorraine Muller and Theodore Spychalski.

Her biological parents.

Lorraine Muller and Theodore Spychalski.

“ALICE!” she shouted, somewhere between frantic and forced calm.

Deb hadn’t wanted Alice to be there when she opened it. She loved Alice more than anything, but she needed to do this alone, and now she did it, and the answers were in her hand, and she was crying, and she needed her girlfriend. Deb heard Bill drop something in the kitchen, and heard Alice’s running steps coming from above her. Soon both of them were in the room, which hadn’t been expected, but Alice was holding her and stroking her hair and Bill was kneeling beside her, taking the paper from her hand.

“It’s okay, Sweetie, it’s okay, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” Alice asked in a soothing tone.

“I’ll be right back,” Bill said, gesturing something at Alice and leaving with her original birth certificate. Weird flex, but alright. She was crying, she didn’t care.

“I’m adopted!” she explained through her tears.

“Okay,” Alice said, rocking her. “Are these happy tears or sad tears?”

“I don’t know! I just cry! All the time!” she replied.

“I know,” Alice replied. She held her close, continuing to comfort her as Deb tried to calm down. Deb felt incredibly lucky to have such a patient girlfriend.

“My last name is fucking Spychalski,” she said, with renewed tears.

“What the fuck kind of last name is that?” Alice asked, unable to stop herself from laughing under her breath.

“I don’t know! Polish?” Deb said.

“You’re Polish! Congrats!” Alice said.

“And German, my mom’s a Muller,” Deb sniffled.

“No wonder you’re so pale,” Alice teased.

“I’m so pale,” Deb cried.

“No! That was a joke!” Alice said, rubbing Deb’s back.

“I know, I’m just crying,” Deb replied.

Alice wiped away her tears, helping her continue to calm down. “Spychalski isn’t actually all that bad, you know. Sounds like ‘spy’. You’re destined to be cool.”

“You’re destined to be cool, shut up,” Deb replied, bumping her shoulder against Alice’s. “Why did your dad steal my birth certificate?”

“I genuinely have no actual clue,” Alice replied, snickering a bit.

“Your dad is stealing my identity,” she mumbled.

“He’s dastardly like that,” Alice said, bumping Deb back.

As they spoke, Bill returned, phone to his ear. “Deb, we know your father.”

\---

It was a lazy afternoon. It should have been a fucking lazy afternoon. He and Charlotte were looking at baby room stuff online and debating how they wanted to decorate the nursery. It was a happy thing to be doing! They had nowhere to go, nothing they needed to do. All they needed was to cuddle and talk about baby things.

Then Ted got a call from Bill. That in and of itself was not that disturbing. Occasionally Bill would call, they were friends now and everything, that’s what having friends entailed. Bill had decided to make a ‘dad club’ for him, Bill, and Tom to talk about Dad Things, with Paul also being there because the noodle wanted to have friends too. Of course Paul was invited. Ted thought of Paul as his friend too after all. If Paul wanted to sit with them while they talked about dad things, feeling confused because he was not a dad, Paul was welcome to do so. He was just enough of an asshole to be worth knowing.

“What’s up, Bill?” he asked, smiling at Charlotte.

“Theodore Spychalski,” Bill replied. Okay, so he was having some sort of moment, alright.

“That’s me, what’s up?” he asked.

“You signed her birth certificate Theodore Spychalski. I am holding it in my hand right now,” Bill said quickly.

Ted sat forward, too startled to fully pull his arm from around Charlotte as he did, and therefore taking her with him. “You what?”

“Lorraine Muller and Theodore Spychalski. Her name is listed as Baby Spychalski. She was born at six am on May 23rd, 2001,” Bill said, reading off of the paper.

“Shit, she is my daughter,” Ted said quickly, staring out into the middle distance as he processed that information.

Charlotte gave him a ‘what the fuck’ face, and he gestured that he’d explain in a second. She just kept staring at him with confusion, though she seemed to accept that response.

“I guess she is,” Bill replied. “Do you want to talk to her?”

“Yeah I want to talk to her, shit, should I come over?” he asked.

“Maybe not yet. I’ll hand her my phone though, you can talk to her, and when everyone is calm, we can talk about meeting,” Bill said. There was a pause before he said to the people in whatever room he was in, “Deb, we know your father.”

There was a shriek.

“Great job, Bill,” Ted said.

“Your daughter’s as dramatic as you are. Deb, do you want to talk to him? It’s Ted,” Bill said.

“TED? LIKE, THE TED? THE TED WITH THE GOOFY MUSTACHE?” Deb shouted.

“Ouch, harmful,” Ted said, knowing full well she couldn’t hear him.

“Yes, the Ted with a terrible mustache, do you want to talk to him?” Bill asked.

Ted couldn’t hear her reply, but there was a pause and a shuffling sound, and then tears. Oh God, teenage girl, right, tears. “Hey, my mustache isn’t that bad, is it?” he asked. “Being my kid can’t be all that bad, worth all those tears.”

“Your mustache is shit!” Deb cried, laughing as she cried. “You’re my dad?”

“Theodore Spychalski, at your service,” he said, wiping at his own eyes. “And my mustache is great, you try growing one, I bet you can’t do any better.”

“Why’d you give me up?” she asked and, wow, right for the big question there.

Ted coughed a bit, startled. “I… Deb, I didn’t want to give you up. My dad was shit, I was still in high school, living with him. If I’d kept you, he would have hurt you, I didn’t want you brought up in that,” Ted explained and, God, there were the waterworks. “Your mom… she just wasn’t interested in being a mom. I always wanted you though, I promise you, I always wanted you. Every single day since you were born, I’ve wanted you in my life, and missed you.”

“Really?” she asked.

“Yeah! We thought there might be a possibility, but we didn’t wanna say anything if you weren’t ready. That’s why we invited you over, that’s why I’ve been trying so hard to reach out. Charlotte wants you around too, right, Charlotte?” Ted said, holding the phone out a bit.

“Right! That’s why I keep baking for you! I wanna make you feel welcome,” Charlotte said, clearly not entirely sure what was happening, but happy to take part.

“Can I live with you?” Deb asked. “Bill’s great but I live in Paul’s old room and it’s super awkward.”

Ted laughed and wiped at his eyes again. “We’ll figure that out. We’ll need to get you a bed, and the baby…”

“I’ll help take care of it! When it comes, I’ll help! I won’t be a bother, I’ll help out as much as you need,” Deb assured.

“H-... Deb, that’s not the issue. You could never lift a finger around the house and I’d still want you here. The problem is space. We might have to move to a bigger unit, so you and the baby can both have rooms,” Ted explained.

“She wants to live with us?!” Charlotte asked excitedly.

Ted nodded. “Would you be willing to help us with that? The moving part?” he asked Deb, his daughter.

“Yeah! I’ll help! As much as I can, with my shoulders,” Deb replied.

“That’s all we ask,” Ted said quietly.

“Thanks… Dad,” Deb said.

And God, did that bring the tears. Dad. She called him dad. He was her dad. He found her. They would work out the specifics later, right now? Right now he just needed to enjoy this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spychalski  
> Polish : probably from a nickname, Spychała, for an idle worker, a variant of Polish dialect spychacz ‘shirker’, ‘ducker’ (from spychać ‘to push down’).
> 
> I had to do it to em. I had to. It's just too perfect and funny. I had to do it.
> 
> Also I would like to add that half of the time when I upload a chapter I forget to add the title which makes the chapter title challenge so fucking funny.


	28. Tomorrow Will Come Today

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone celebrates Thanksgiving, and worries about what the future may bring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the radio silence! My father's health has been declining and he's currently in the hospital. He's going to be placed in a rehabilitation center and with any luck a home after that, and the past week has been extremely stressful because we were taking care of him when his health was so terrible. Now that he's no longer at home, I should be able to start writing again more because that stress is gone. There's still a lot going on irl so I will try my best to return to regular posting, I just can't promise it's every day at least for the time being. I assure you all that I am healthy and well! You are all constantly in my thoughts! If you ever want to contact me, my tumblr is r-we-taire-yet!
> 
> The chapter title is still going on! I have a prompt that I still haven't filled and I am sorry I will get there soon, everything's just been Real Bad the last week or two and I haven't been mentally able to write. Sorry! I will get there soon.
> 
> Warnings! Thanksgiving. This is Thanksgiving. In the second scene John and Crew say down with the military and stuff as much as they can. The chapter has an overhanging sense of dread. That's about it. After this though... Black Friday... Next chapter starts it! Be prepared!
> 
> This chapter is dedicated to the Paul Group Chat on tumblr because Sam was sad and I wanted to make Sam happy so hi Sam and hi Group Chat I love you guys.

Things aren't as simple or easy as people like them to be. Life is difficult, a series of hoops to jump through. One thing after another after another. Survive one crisis and another rears its ugly head. People like to imagine that situations can be simple, that solutions are obvious and that complexity isn’t as complex as it may first appear to be. The simple fact of the matter is that life is difficult. Life is hard. Life is complex. Solutions aren’t obvious and feelings about those solutions can be complex and challenging to face. The right answer is always a complex one, and sometimes that hurts. Sometimes you lose people because there just isn’t a right answer. Sometimes the solution is letting go.

Other times, it is holding on tight. We cannot go through life alone, we cannot go through it without support. Those we hold tightly to mean everything, because those ties we bind, the ties that bind us all together, mean more than anything. Your family may fail you, but there are always others. Your friends may leave you, but there are always others. You will lose people, and it will hurt, and you will suffer, but through the ties that bind us, tightly woven to protect us from the harshness of the world, you will survive. Family is found, family is made, family is chosen.

Family can fail you. Sometimes the people that hurt you the most, purposefully or not, are your family. Sometimes you have wonderful memories with the person, sometimes you miss them terribly when they’re gone, but they are better gone. It is okay to have complex and difficult feelings related to that. It’s okay to grieve what was, to grieve someone still alive for the loss they caused you. It’s okay to hurt. It’s okay to be angry. It’s okay to be relieved when they leave, even if that causes you guilt.

Solutions, no matter how clear they are, are always more difficult to work through than it strictly may seem it requires. The course of action may be clear, but there are always hoops to jump through, always things in the way. If life allowed solutions to be followed as easily as they make sense to, it would be much easier. Life is fickle though, people are fickle. Situations are complex and feelings are confusing. Things that are right are rarely easy.

When feelings were cooled, it was decided that Deb should get to know Ted and Charlotte more before moving in with them. Plus, there was furniture that needed to be bought and moving that needed to happen and on top of that they needed to go to work and school and appointments and shop for the baby. The solution to the problem of Deb needing a permanent residence was clear, but the way there was far more complex than it appeared on paper.

Clearly, obviously, she should move in with her father. But! But but but but but. But they needed more space to put the furniture, but they need furniture to house her, but they need more room to do that, but they need a new place to move into to put the furniture, but they need to prepare for the baby, but they needed to work out Deb’s situation before they could prepare for the baby, but they couldn’t forget the baby. But but but but but. But they needed to work out insurance but they needed to talk to the school and the doctors and everyone but they only knew each other for a month.

A month! Not even a month, not yet. A few weeks! He was her father and he wanted her in his life but they hadn’t even known each other a month! That wasn’t something that could be solved by rushing things and moving her in with them before any of them were prepared. Charlotte had a part to play in it too, and as much as she wanted to support them and was willing to help however necessary, she’d only known Deb for a few weeks as well! Deb wasn’t even related to her! Charlotte was nice and all, but she didn’t really know either of them. That couldn’t be solved quickly, or simply.

The solution to the problem is complex when there are multiple phases the problem exists within. The logical answer on paper does not account for human emotions.

These things required steps. Everything requires steps, when it comes down to it. Some steps are big, like going to college to get a degree to get a good job. Some are small, like asking someone if they’d like to go to the movies with you to see if there could be something there between you. The first step to solving the problem for the Spychalski family was to have Thanksgiving.

Charlotte and Ted cooked and decorated for the event, having invited Bill, Alice, and Deb to come over for dinner. They had graciously accepted, and now they were all together in Charlotte and Ted’s little apartment enjoying the replay of the parade from earlier. They were going to have a good time. They were going to be a family. If Alice and Deb had any say in the matter, Bill and Ted would be in-laws in a few years as well as friends. If Charlotte married Ted one day, she’d be a part of the family too, and was therefore included in the ‘family’ perspective.

“Were you ever a sports ball guy, Ted?” Deb asked.

Ted laughed. “Nooo, no way, I- have you seen me? I have the coordination of a drunk crane on a good day. Look at my limbs, I’m very easily broken.”

“And I kicked your head,” Bill teased.

“Shut up about the kicking the head thing, we both know if I’d been standing you- no, you know what? Kick my head right now, I dare you,” Ted said.

Bill just laughed. “You’re too fucking tall, Ted.”

“Yeah! I fucking am! I’m too fucking tall! I hit my head constantly!” Ted exclaimed.

“That explains a few things,” Deb teased.

“Rude. In my own home, my daughter has forsaken me,” Ted said, clutching his heart. “Honey, did you hear that? I’m forsaken!”

“No, Ted, I wasn’t paying attention, sorry. That nice commercial about the green doll was on. I think we should get one for the nursery,” Charlotte said.

“Nope, don’t do it, Wiggly is fucking gross and also evil,” Deb stated.

“It’s true, Lex said so,” Alice agreed.

“I think he’s cute and cuddly!” Charlotte said defensively.

“Yeah, he’s not that bad, Alice. Don’t you want to-”

“No, Dad, I never want to be in the same room as that ugly thing,” Alice interrupted.

There was a long silence as the teens stood off against the adults, then they all looked to Ted, who hadn’t said a word about the doll. He looked uncomfortable, but stood up anyway. “Turkey should be ready. I’m gonna get it out of the oven and we can eat,” he said quickly, leaving them all to resume their heated debate about the doll.

\---

Another day, another apocalypse. John had lost count of how many he had experienced in his time either with PEIP or before. It was just another monster. This one, Wiggly, was slightly different though, wasn’t he? He had Wilbur, John’s adoptive father, the man who shaped him into who John was today. His father’s very soul and eternal life rested in John’s actions in the next forty eight hours. So what was John doing?

He was quietly folding napkins while sitting at the dining room table. Schaeffer and Code were beside him in the ‘living room’ area of the space, shouting at the television while Xander was finishing up in the kitchen. This wasn’t the family he was born with, it was the family John had found and forged. His biological family had died out years ago. Wilbur was gone.

He had Amanda Schaeffer, his best friend since she joined PEIP who had always been by his side, and had assisted him and Xander through many crises. He had James “Code” Johnson, who was like a younger brother to him, a mentee who had loyally stood beside him for years, who he brought with him on difficult missions due to deeply rooted trust. He had Xander, the love of his life and the most amazing person he had ever met. John had risked himself, he had risked everything to get Xander back, and he knew he’d do it again in a heartbeat. He had his job, but he was a fallible human man, and he loved his husband more than anything.

“Can you two dipshits help me get the food to the table?” Xander called.

Code and Schaeffer ran to the kitchen to assist as John watched them with a smile. He wondered how many more years it would take them to realize they’d been functionally partners since 2015. There was a betting pool among the peeps. John was winning. They carried the food out to the table as Xander instructed, followed by Xander himself who smiled at John as he entered the room. 

They were going to face a great evil within twenty four hours, a threat potentially greater than the Apotheosis, one that wanted to force them to tear each other apart, one that wanted blood and discord. Every day brought new risks with their line of work, they always knew it could be the day they died, that they may never see their family again when they went to work in the morning. They may never have another family dinner like this one. John knew he personally was going to do anything in his power to stop Wiggly, he knew there was a great risk he could die, but if his family, if this family could live another day because of him? It would be worth it.

“John, do you want to say a few words like always?” Xander asked.

He cleared his throat and sat forward, adjusting the hat on his head (not his formal hat, a different hat, he just felt more comfortable wearing a hat). “Today we mourn the lives of native people lost to colonization done by our ancestors and caused by the deeds our military did,” John began.

“Here here,” Xander agreed.

“We acknowledge the actions that are still being done today by the army and denounce their wrong doings, swearing to do our part as part of the system to do better, to make things better,” John continued.

“Fuck the military,” Code agreed.

“We’re in the military,” Schaeffer scolded.

“So?” Code asked.

John loved these people. “In addition to all of that, we are here to celebrate thankfulness as our culture dictates. We are here to express our thankfulness for our lives and each other, and every day that allows us to continue living and working together. We are thankful for the love we share, the food we share, the memories we carry with us through times of difficulty as well as peace. We are thankful for the food on the table, the roof over our heads, and for jobs that grant us the ability to help those who cannot protect themselves. We are thankful for the peaceful times, and for our survival through the challenges we have faced.”

Xander smiled and reached over, squeezing his hand gently. Xander, more than any of them, had suffered greatly in the last year, but he was there, he was smiling, and John was thankful. “I personally am thankful for each of you. James, I am thankful that I have you by my side in difficult situations, and that I know I can rely on you in times of need. I am thankful for your energy and passion for our work, it makes things much easier. Amanda, I am thankful for your support. Through thick and thin you have always been here to help us, to keep us strong when we slip. The world would have fallen to the Hive if it weren’t for your dedication to your job and to your friends, and I am eternally grateful you kept Xander strong through that time.

“And Xander,” John said, squeezing his husband’s hand back and giving him a smile, “I thank God and every other benevolent being in the universe that I wake up beside you each morning, and rest beside you each night. I thank every star in the sky that I have your smile, and your laugh, and your brain in my life. I knew, after only knowing you for two weeks that I loved you, and that fact has never changed. It never will. I love you, Xander Lee, and I thank you for choosing me the way I chose you.”

“I am thankful for you, John McNamara,” Xander replied with a smile. “I am thankful you haven’t managed to get your ass killed permanently yet. I am thankful you came back to me, that you always come back to me. I am thankful you stood up for me in class all those years ago, and invited me to that terrible potato themed restaurant-”

“It wasn’t terrible, the fries were excellent,” John disagreed.

Xander laughed. “The fries sucked! They sucked! We were in Springfield, there were other options!”

“The fries were good and I will die on this hill,” John said firmly.

“Then grab your shovel ‘cause I’m not digging your grave-” Xander held his hand up when John tried to speak again. “Nope! My turn to be thankful! I am thankful for each of you! I am thankful for all the support you’ve given us through thick and thin, and that you two have always been there. We wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for you.”

“The world would have ended ten times over if it weren’t for the four people at this table,” Schaeffer agreed. “I am thankful for you all. I am thankful for the friendship and companionship I have received. I am thankful you chose me, John, all those years ago. I am thankful for us, for this team. I am thankful for everything I have that I do not know how to list. I am thankful.”

“I am thankful for all of you,” Code agreed. “I’m thankful for John, for giving me a chance, and trusting me still even after I- after I-”

“I don’t recall who infected me, and you certainly don’t either,” John said.

“It had to have been me though, didn’t it? I was the only one who knew you never check your seven,” Code said quietly.

“And even if that is true, I do not blame you for infecting me because you were already gone,” John assured.

“I’m thankful for Xander, for being a good friend for John, and for everything you’ve always done. I’m thankful to Mandy for being the best friend a guy could ask for, for always being there for me. I care about you guys a lot, and I’m glad we’re all safe and together, at least for today. I love you guys,” Code said, smiling at them.

“We love you too,” Xander said.

“We do indeed,” John seconded.

“To friends, to family,” Schaeffer said, lifting her glass.

“To family!” they echoed as they clinked glasses and drank.

Out of the corner of his eye, John saw Wilbur standing in the corner of the living room, watching them, eating an apple. He winked at John, and was gone. John shook his head and returned to smiling at his companions. Tomorrow would come, eventually, and they would face the threat ahead of them. But, tomorrow was tomorrow, and for now, John was going to enjoy the day.

\---

“Who stole all the cranberry sauce?!” Emma cried with a smile on her face.

“It’s yummy and it’s mine!” Tim shouted.

“Stop yelling, inside voices,” Tom scolded as he passed Lex the basket of bread.

“IT’S YUMMY AND IT’S MINE!” Tim repeated, louder this time.

“Stop that!” Tom said, ruffling his hair.

Emma and Paul were hosting the family gathering this year and everyone was sitting around the old oak dining table with food they had made together. They’d arrived early in the day to help, well, Becky, Tom, Lex, and Ethan helped while Tim and Hannah entertained themselves by playing hide and seek and Hidgens watched over them. Hidgens was not trusted in the kitchen. He _was_ however trusted with watching the children.

“Your hair is cranberry,” Hannah said quietly to Becky.

“It is!” Becky happily agreed. “It’s red and everything!”

“It was even redder in high school,” Tom said.

“Oh my god, it was so red. It was like, Anne of Green Gables red,” Emma agreed.

“Classic show or Netflix show?” Paul asked.

Emma thought for a moment. “Which classic? The black and white one?”

“Not the black and white one, obviously, I mean the one in the late eighties,” Paul said.

“‘Cause there were a lot of film adaptations of Anne of Green Gables before that one,” Emma said.

Tom laughed. “You guys are even bigger nerds than I am.”

“I loved Anne as a little girl, my hair was the exact shade of the girl in the 80s. I remember when kids would call me carrot top and stuff like that. Oh! Hannah! You would love Anne! She’s an extraordinary young girl with an imagination bigger than she is and a love for the world around her. Have you read the books yet?” Becky asked.

Hannah shook her head as she ate.

“I’ll have to get you the books then! And we can talk about them together,” Becky said.

Hannah smiled and nodded as she continued to enjoy her food.

“I remember when the adaptation came out in the seventies. I saw it on the television,” Hidgens stated.

“Where the fuck else would you have seen it, Professor, it was a show,” Emma teased.

“That is a good point,” he relented.

“What the fuck are you people talking about?” Ethan asked with a laugh.

Emma dramatically held out her arms. “A ginger, LOOSE on Prince Edwards Island. No one knows what the ginger is going to do, least of all the ginger!”

“So Becky?” Ethan asked.

“I don’t have Anne’s temper,” Becky laughed. “And I’ve never been to Canada.”

“You do live on an island though,” Lex commented, “and you are a redhead.”

“I am,” she agreed.

“I never saw the appeal of Anne,” Paul admitted.

“That’s because it wasn’t for you!” Emma stated. “She was for weird little girls with too many emotions who got into trouble and had big imaginations.”

“I’m still confused,” Ethan said, laughing some more.

Lex pat his back. “Isn’t that how it always is at these things? The adults go off on a thing about film and we sit here confused for five hours listening.”

“We don’t do it for five hours,” Tom said.

“Oh really? You guys spent the majority of the afternoon talking about ‘Young Frankenstein’,” Lex said.

“And it’s a shame you two haven’t seen it yet! We’ll have to watch it this weekend,” Tom said.

Everyone went a bit quiet at that, even chewing stopped. They didn’t know if they would make it to the weekend. Friday was in the way, and Friday… Friday was going to be an entire situation none of them could possibly predict. It was strange, knowing that you might die the next day, to look two days ahead and not know if you might be there. They couldn’t say they’d watch something that weekend if they didn’t even know if the world would be there on the weekend. If they failed, the world would end. If they didn’t, they might lose someone in the process, they might die. But either way, Black Friday was coming, it was hours away, and they had no way to prepare other than by steeling their hearts.

“Yeah, Dad, we’ll watch it this weekend,” Lex promised.

They would. If Lex had a say, and she did because she was the Soul and that role had a responsibility but it had a power, they would watch it on the weekend. The fate of the world was resting, specifically, on her shoulders, and she wasn’t going to let her family down, let the world down. The only limitations on one's power are the ones you make. If Lex believed she could stop Wiggly, he didn’t have a chance, even if she didn’t know yet how she would stop him. She would. It was only a matter of time. The clock was ticking! Only hours away now. Black Friday was nearly there.

Are you ready?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BLACK FRIDAY BLACK FRIDAY BLACK FRIDAY We're so close now.
> 
> Also the first bit of the first scene is kind of a letter from me to you guys about challenges in life because I have had so much shit happen in the last four years and that gives me the right. It's also a letter to myself to help myself process the situation with my father. I just hope it helps someone else out there who is struggling too. I know things are rough right now and there isn't much I can do other than give you my words, I hope that is enough.
> 
> ACAB, love you guys, stay safe, stay strong. I support you all and I am with you all no matter what you're going through. You can do it. Have faith in yourselves and you will pull through.


	29. All I Need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Black Friday begins with violence. Lex and Ethan try their best to remain on mission with the situation at hand. Alice and Deb attempt to navigate the chaos. Hannah tries her best to help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I am very sleepy but here is the chapter, hurrah. Once this story is done I am going to go through and edit each chapter, just letting you all know that now because there will be some scenes added and some things changed, such as HCB being removed as Oliver and being renamed Peter, along with some inconsistencies that come from writing a chapter at a time and posting each as they're done. They irritate me but I don't want to edit until the story is done.
> 
> The chapter title challenge is still in play! If you can name the song each chapter title comes from, I will fulfill a prompt for you! Once I have the energy to do so. I owe some prompts rn and I am sorry.
> 
> Warnings! Violence. Just... violence. Nonspecific, not graphic, but it's crazy.

The worst part about the world ending was having to wake up super early in the morning so she could help Frank prepare for Black Friday. Lex could not wait to quit. As soon as this bullshit was over, she was quitting, provided that was a possibility. Frank had no idea an apocalypse was coming, he was the same jackass as ever.

“Lex! Chop chop!” Frank called.

Lex rolled her eyes as she pulled the box to its chosen position behind the counter. In the distance, she could see the line waiting outside the closed door, and could see Tom’s head bobbing somewhere near the front. That helped steel her nerves, knowing her family was near. She knew chaos was going to break out, that people were going to die, but she had her family near, and her sister was safe. That was all she could ask for. Becky was a nurse, Ethan would be by her side, Tom would protect them all. It would be okay, right?

Right?

“Why is your no good boyfriend around?” Frank asked.

“What?” Lex asked, looking around to spot him waiting by the door, not in the line.

“Is he trying to steal one of the dolls? I know the Apotheosis ‘changed your lives’ but it changed everyone else’s. He’s still a lowlife,” Frank said.

Lex took a breath to prevent herself from blowing up at him. “Actually he’s here to see if there’s anything he wants to give my sister and adoptive brother for Christmas, to buy,” Lex said, trying to remain upbeat and not upset him.

“He’s still a lowlife. I’m opening the doors. Hello, Money!” Frank called as he walked to the door and flipped the sign, unlocking the door and pulling it up to allow the customers in. “Welcome! Good morning! Step right inside!”

The line moved itself up to the counter she sat behind and she pulled out the doll. Ethan was browsing the shelves nearby, and Tom and Becky seemed to be arguing with a woman who looked stupidly wealthy. Right on, Lex supposed. She vaguely recognized her as a repeat customer who gave her hell. If Tom and Becky didn’t like her, Lex supposed her opinion of the woman wasn’t incorrect. On top of that, Sherman was right in front. Expected, but annoying nevertheless.

“Good morning, loyal customer, can I interest you in a tickle-me-wiggly?” Frank asked.

“Yes,” Sherman said. “In fact, I would like all of them.”

“Wait what?” Frank asked. There was murmuring among the line. Okay, off to a bad start. She wasn’t sure she’d expected the problems to start right away, but there they were. “Did you say you wanted all of the Wigglys?”

“Yes.”

“As in the entire stock?”

“Yes.”

“... Would you like them gift wrapped?” Frank asked, elated.

“No!” the annoying rich lady cried, already throwing a fit. “No no no no no! He can’t buy all the dolls! Some of us have been in line for hours!”

There was more discord among the group and Lex crossed her arms, looking to Ethan to see what he was doing. Ethan was watching the chaos as well, then looked in her direction with a nervous expression. She looked to Tom and Becky, but much to her concern they seemed to be staring at the doll with the same eyes as the other adults who seemed to be falling under his spell. Shit. She needed to contact McNamara, but she couldn’t right now.

The arguing continued and Lex’s anxiety only increased. She was hardly paying attention to the nonsense they were speaking, focusing more on the body language of the crowd which was progressively growing more threatening. Now there was an attorney. What the fuck? She genuinely had no idea what the actual fuck he was talking about, ‘audits’, but Frank was getting upset and he changed his tune. Lex knew hell was coming but she hadn’t expected a lawyer to actually be a herald of said hell.

And then the Karen kneed him in the crotch. Perhaps it was not the lawyer who was the herald of destruction, but the fucking Karen.

“Alright, screw this line, I’ll give you five hundred dollars for one Wiggly,” a man said, stepping out of line.

“Now there’s an idea. Would you like it gift wrapped?” Frank asked.

“Wait a minute, I’ll give you seven hundred!” another man said.

The crowd was reaching a boiling point and she quickly darted to try and get them back in line to hopefully prevent the chaos. “No, everybody back in line!” Lex said, desperate to calm the situation. Why were they getting so upset?

“Shut the fuck up!” the man shouted, pushing her away.

“GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!” Tom shouted, grabbing the man and pulling him away from Lex.

“Fuck you!” the man cried, pulling himself away from Tom.

Frank was no help, his greed blinding him to the danger they were in as he held the doll above his head. “Show me the money, people, show me the money!”

“Eight hundred dollars!”

“Three dollars!”

“Can I use these coupons?

“This ain’t right!” another man cried desperately. “I lost my job when the plant closed. I can’t afford three-five hundred dollars for a doll! A Wiggly is $49.95!”

Shit, he was about to explode, she could see it in his eyes, and there was nothing she could do. Lex turned to Ethan, who had gotten much closer while the scene played out. The plan had been for him to run a Wiggly to the agents outside the mall so that the scientists at PEIP could begin their research, and she knew now that they had no time. Lex looked to the door and gestured for him to go. He shook his head, but she gestured again, mentally begging him to trust her. Against his better judgment, he did, quickly darting out of the store.

“Sorry, pal, the price just went up. Supply and demand is a wonderful thing. Whoever pays the most for a Wiggly, _gets a Wiggly_ ,” Frank said, his greed consuming him entirely.

“Well then if you aren’t going to sell me that doll, I guess I’m just going to have to take it!” the man growled, wrestling the doll from her hands despite her protests.

“Hands off the merchandise!”

“That man’s got a Wiggly, he’s got a Wiggly doll!”

“If he gets one then I want four!”

“Give me that doll!”

“No, give it to me!”

The man screamed as all of the shoppers began to wrestle over the doll, all hell breaking loose at once, the tension bubbling over and violence following. She tried to grab it back from him, but to no avail. As Frank was distracted, she grabbed one of the dolls from behind the counter and pushed it through the fabric of reality, into Ethan’s waiting hands safely outside the store. She looked to him, eyes wide, but gestured for him to run. They needed to hurry before the shoppers did something more radical.

“It’s mine!” Tom shouted, lifting it over his head.

 _Shit._ Great, so Tom and Becky were definitely not on their side right now, great, wonderful, fucking superb. Living their best lives. They weren’t entirely gone though, it seemed, Tom still sheltered Becky from the violence, attempting to protect her, he still punched a man trying to accost Lex. Becky grabbed her face for a moment in the frey, her eyes tinted green but clearly checking her over for injuries before the pull of the doll dragged her back. They weren’t possessed, not entirely anyway. They were just clouded. Great.

As the fighting continued, she bolted for the exit, only to be grabbed from behind by someone screaming about the doll. Tom grabbed him by the neck and squeezed until he released her. “RUN, LEX, GO!” he shouted over the noise, even with his green tinted eyes, pushing her gently out the door but not following behind her. Go she did, sprinting out of the store in an attempt to find Ethan.

Already the shoppers in the incredibly long line were dispersing, destroying things and blocking the doors to the mall. Even better. Lex sprinted past them, weaving in between them in an attempt to get to the other side of the mall, where Ethan might be. The Cineplex. Even if the exits were blocked, their meet up point was the Cineplex. If she could find him, they would be fine. They would get through this.

\---

“What the hell is going on up there?” Bill asked, peering around Ted who stood ahead of him in line.

“We should just go!” Deb said. “This is stupid, there’s too many people and the freaky thing will scare the baby once it’s here.”

“He’s cute!” Charlotte protested, a bit more forceful than was normal for the fairly soft spoken woman.

Alice and Deb looked at each other with concern. The three adults had grown more and more agitated as they waited in line, and the girls were getting nervous. They weren’t used to this sort of behavior from them. Lex had said Wiggly was bad, she’d said it was going to cause something similar to the Apotheosis. Clearly whatever was happening was impacting the adults but not them.

Ethan bolted past them, and as he did, chaos erupted around the teens. The adults were suddenly fighting, like a wave of aggression and destruction went through them. There was a doll, somewhere, and all the adults were going crazy to try and get it. Even Ted, Bill, and Charlotte were swept up in it, much to the surprise and terror of the teens. Charlotte’s ability to fight was limited due to her chair, and Ted was still recovering from the wound on his shoulder, but Bill had no problem clawing his way towards where the doll was.

They had to do something, but there was nothing they could do. Their parents were wrapped up in the chaos and there was nothing they could do but watch and avoid getting killed. Deb couldn’t watch people she loved die again. She couldn’t let them hurt Alice. Deb grabbed Alice’s hand and started pulling her through the chaos, trying to find somewhere safe to go.

“No! My dad!” Alice cried, trying to pull away and return to him.

“Alice, I will not watch people tear you apart again!” Deb shouted, staring at her frantically.

Alice was torn between wanting to try and snap her dad out of it and getting away, but Deb’s expression won her over. Deb had seen her die. Okay. Realistically she knew but they’d never spoken about it. They had no idea how to snap their parents out of the weird state they were in and staying in the frey was only going to get them killed again, this time permanently. “Macy’s,” Alice stated, holding Deb’s hand tightly as they weaved their way through the crowd.

\---

Hannah froze when she entered the room they were guided into, though that reaction was shared by Paul and Tim as well, given that neither of them had seen the portal before either. They didn’t see it the way she did though, they couldn’t feel it. They couldn’t hear it, the whispers from within, couldn’t see the energy coming from it like she could, couldn’t feel how it sucked the warmth from their bones and drew them in towards it.

In the same breath, it felt safe for her, though it would likely unnerve the others. She knew they would feel a sense of wrongness where she felt it was right. They weren’t connected to the Black and White like she was, they didn’t have that sense of familiarity she had. From the day she was born her very soul was deeply touched by the telepathic plane of existence, from the cradle she heard the whispers, saw things no one else did. The Black and White felt like a part of her, while the others only felt uncomfortable. It was different for her than it was for Mr. McNamara, or even Lex. They’d always been connected too, it was true, but they couldn’t see what she saw, hear what she heard. Mr. McNamara only caught some of it, not nearly enough.

“Well, here it is!” Emma said, gesturing towards the portal.

“Cool!” Tim said, holding onto the railing as he looked at it.

“If I hadn’t been infected by an alien spore that turned me into a singing zombie for over a month, I would think you were pranking me,” Paul said seriously.

“Welcome! Don’t be scared, as long as you stay away from the portal it can’t hurt you. Since I fixed it, nothing can get out, so we are safer here than anywhere else,” Xander said, guiding the group down the stairs to where the technological devices were.

“Where’s John?” Paul asked.

“Sir, the doors are all blocked from the inside. It will be near impossible for us to get in there and get a doll,” Schaeffer said from Xander’s phone.

“Great, okay, can you make contact with any of the agents inside?” Xander asked.

“Where’s John, Xander?” Paul repeated.

“Not yet, but I will alert you when I can,” Schaeffer said, ending the call.

Xander sighed. “John is on his way to DC to talk to the president about the situation. This isn’t just Hatchetfield, it’s the entire country. He needs to be aware.”

_Bad Blood. Cross. Black and White._

“Bad Blood. Cross. Black and White,” Hannah stated as she blinked hard, repeating Webby’s words.

Xander was quiet for a moment before kneeling down in front of her. “Thank you. I have some ideas about that. If she tells you anything else, let me know, okay?”

Hannah nodded, wishing Ethan or Lex were there. She felt exposed without them, even though she knew realistically that she was quite safe where she was. Tom wasn’t there either, or Becky. None of her usual Grown Up people were there right now. It wasn’t that she didn’t like or trust Emma or Paul, but she knew he was Emma’s protector, not hers, and if something bad happened his first instinct would be to protect her and not Hannah. 

She trusted Xander though, Webby had told her before that he was trustworthy, that she could rely on him. He was a good man, so was Mr. McNamara. Hannah knew she was safe if one of them was around. A Warrior? There were a few Warriors and the two of them matched the description of the role fairly well. A Warrior would step in and protect her, she knew that. That’s why Tom and Becky were safe.

They weren’t safe right now, Hannah knew. She could feel it, through the Black and White, she could feel the unsettling creeping feeling of Wiggly’s control growing stronger. They weren’t okay, and that meant Lexi and Ethan weren’t safe. Ethan would protect Lex though, Hannah knew. He would protect her and she would fix the problem and everything would return to normal. She would get her dad back. At least, for now, she had Tim.

“Do you want to share with the class?” Emma asked.

Xander stood back up and put his glasses back on to read from his machine nearby. “I’m not sure about ‘Bad Blood’ but ‘Cross’ likely refers to Wilbur Cross and ‘Black and White’,” he gestured at the portal, “is fairly self explanatory, though we can never assume when it comes to Webby.”

“Don’t do it. Two doors, not one,” Hannah repeated, sitting down quickly because her head was spinning due to the amount of psychic energy in the room and in her head.

The adults were quiet, unsure how to react or respond at first. That warning was unsettling, as it could refer to nearly anything. Xander was particularly concerned though, and thanked her before stepping away to make another call. Hannah didn’t know what it meant, and neither did the other three there with her, but Xander seemed to have some idea, and didn’t seem happy about it. That was okay, the mistakes hadn’t been made yet. There was still time.

There was still time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't feel like writing all of the lines from the first scene word for word though I did for some of them. I had to listen to that scene so many times, guys, and I couldn't even listen to feast or famine until I was done.


	30. Time to Love You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John is benched and by benched I mean having a discussion with the president. Lex and Ethan reunite... it doesn't go well. Tom is Sad and Becky tries to save a life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long absence the real world is hell. I am moving on Friday, I got my wisdom teeth out on Wednesday, and everything had just generally been crazy so I haven't been able to write. I can't guarantee when the next chapter will happen, with everything it is hard to know when I'll have the inspiration to write. Your comments help though! They drive me!
> 
> The chapter title challenge is still happening! If you can name the song each chapter title from the fic comes from, I will fill a prompt for you! I still owe a prompt, sorry! That will come soon now that I've lost my wisdom teeth. I swear that will make sense once it's published.
> 
> Warnings! Ooohhh boy, okay. The second scene has non-graphic displays of violence. The third scene has the after effects of violence. There is blood and pain and it's not great.

“So we’re not exactly dealing with terrorists here?” President Goodman asked.

“Not exactly,” John agreed, checking his watch quickly. It was already after ten am.

Time was moving quickly, it always did in these situations but now more than ever he needed to watch the clock. Midnight. They had until midnight to prevent Wiggly from rising. If they held him off, there would still be chaos but an evil god would not be birthed and they would be safe, at least until the next threat. That wouldn’t save Wilbur though, the only way to save Wilbur would be to kill Wiggly and free his soul, but Wiggly was untouchable in the Black and White, not by him at least, and if he got to Earth he would be unstoppable.

Earth came first. The planet came before his father. His vendetta against the evil lord of the Black and White would have to wait until after Black Friday had ended. Wiggly was strongest on this day of greed and lust, stronger than any other day of the year. There was nothing he could do to stop him, on while he was a being of flesh and bone. For all the power he did possess, he wasn’t nearly as strong as the beings they fought against, nor as powerful as the Foster girls.

“What do you want me to do about it?!” Howard asked, frantic.

John was not a self absorbed man. He was rightfully confident in matters he was skilled in, and humble enough to accept that there were many things he was not the best in. Conversations were one thing he did not think he was great at. If he had a script to follow, if he had things planned out ahead of time, he could go through the motions of a conversation without anyone being the wiser.

“He wants us to send you into his dimension so that he can lure you into sending nukes into his domain,” John explained. “We at PEIP would prefer you did not send nuclear weapons anywhere within the next twenty four hours.”

John was not self absorbed, he did not think he was the coolest thing on Earth. He had hard earned confidence and strength he had developed over years of training. That did not mean he could not admit he was not strong enough to stop Wiggly. Wiggly was a wannabe God, he had power so vast and strong he currently reigned over the Black and White. John was just a man, a man who knew things he should not and could do some amazing things with reality, but he was in fact just a man.

Those girls though… Lex Foster had the potential to do what John knew he couldn’t, and that terrified him. Not because he was scared of her! No, she was a good soul and a good Soul, he had no reason to fear her unless he found himself on the receiving end of her desire for justice. He was glad that the universe chose a woman such as her for the power she wielded, anyone lesser would crumble under the pressure. But she was still so young. She didn’t fully understand her role and her place in the universe yet. She didn’t understand what she was truly capable of.

What scared John was that she was going to have to walk this path alone. John was compromised by the situation. He could be around the dolls just fine but they did not want to risk his relationship with Wilbur causing him to crack and fall to Wiggly. Because of that, he had been placed out of the situation, out of the mall. He was, in some ways, benched until the storm had passed so he wouldn’t do anything rash. The last thing they needed was to lose him right now, or for him to do something stupid because his heart was too big.

So, instead of being in the field, he was talking to their not quite clever president about not using nuclear weapons. When he joined the army at the age of 18, he certainly did not expect this to be an event his job would have him take part in, but there he was. John could barely believe sometimes his work included telling the president that the consumerism monster is coming to eat them but not to use fucking nuclear weapons to try and stop it.

“Okay okay, first of all, _it wants you to what?!_ ” Howard cried.

“Wiggly is the ruler of the Black and White, a psychic dimension outside of our reality. Protocol would suggest we send you to discuss a treaty with him, as he is attacking our country,” John said, taking a drag of his cigarette. “Unfortunately, they know our protocol, and that is exactly what they expect us to do. They want us to send you on an unsuccessful mission, and for you to either be eaten by Wiggly or fall to his will. Either way, they expect our ‘shoot first ask questions later’ attitude will lead nukes to be sent into the Black and White. Wiggly will then do with them as he wishes.”

“How do you know all that?” Howard asked, astounded.

“Because Wiggly took one of our agents, who was able to break free and tell us his plan before being consumed once more. We also got a warning from a little girl with a particular skill,” John explained. “But that is not the concern for the moment, Sir. We are not going to send you to the Black and White, we do not intend to allow you anywhere near Wiggly. I need your agreement, however, that you do not authorize the use of nuclear weapons in this matter.” John stared intently Howard until the president gulped and drew back.

“I promise I will not authorize the use of nuclear weapons. What do you want me to do about the situation? Something needs to be done, the country is in chaos,” Howard stated.

“The national guard has already been deployed. Have them, if they can, focus on collecting the dolls, they are his source of power in this plane of existence. Have them burn the doll immediately upon collection, no time can be wasted or he will infect their minds,” John said. Oh how he was thankful he and Xander had talked through what he was going to say before he left.

“Are they the same aliens as the Hatchetfield Incident?” Howard asked.

Ah, a question he had not expected. “No, this is a different being entirely.”

“You’re the general that was Got, right? The one the scientist guy was talking about?” Howard asked.

“Yes, I am the one Xander Lee mentioned to you. I am in command of PEIP,” John stated.

“He called me Howie, it was weird,” Howard mused.

John smiled slightly at that, his fondness for Xander unable to be contained. “He certainly can be strange, but he’s one of the best.”

“You’re not exactly normal yourself,” Howard said. “It’s good. I can’t imagine anyone ordinary working for you people.”

“We are an eclectic bunch, but I doubt average people would be able to do the work we do. My Peeps are exceptional. I have every faith we will get through this crisis, as long as we are all working together,” John said with a nod. He would have to head back to base soon, that would be two hours in the plane or so, but this conversation would likely carry on a while longer. They were running out of time, they needed more time.

\---

Lex decided she hated malls. Really and truly. Had anything good ever happened to her in a mall? She didn’t think so! She’d fucking died in a mall last year and everything. You can’t get any more sucky than that. Malls? Malls were totally on her shit list. Them and toy stores. And red vests. Lex felt like a fucking red shirt from Star Trek as she ran through the crowds to try and find Ethan.

It was bloody. There was hair and blood and torn clothing on the ground. The majority of people seemed to have managed to escape, only leaving those truly desperate for a Wiggly. With the exists blocked, there was no where to run. If they came after her, as they most certainly would once they realized she wasn’t hunting for one the same way they were, she would have nowhere to go. All she could think of as she walked through the halls was Bioshock, with the people driven crazy by capitalism and shit. When had the world gotten so weird?

“Ethan!” Lex whisper shouted as she saw her boyfriend waited in the lobby of the Cineplex.

“Babe!” he cried, hugging her tightly as she flew into his arms. “I was so worried, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, I’ll be fine. Are you?” she asked.

“Nothing that can’t heal. They didn’t think I had one,” he explained. “Don’t think that’ll last much longer though. They’re getting more desperate.”

“They’ve blocked the exists. The only people left are the depressed assholes who bought too much into the spell and us. Tom pushed me out of the store, but he and Becky are down for the count right now. We need to find an escape route like, now,” Lex stated.

“Easier said than done,” Ethan muttered.

“You’re telling me,” she said. “I’d suggest the employee areas behind the shops but there’s a good chance they got back there, and we don’t want to get cornered in there.”

“We could try to break through the barricade?” Ethan said.

“With what we’ve got? No way. They’ll smell it a mile away,” Lex sighed.

“There has so be something! We just have to think!” Ethan assured.

Lex took a deep breath and leaned up to kiss him. “We’ve got a job to do, right, Agent?”

“Right-”

“There!” two men shouted as they spotted the teens.

Ethan held Lex close as he transferred the doll to her without that being visible to the others, then pushed her away. “Go! I’ll catch up! I’ll meet you at the food court!” he whispered frantically as the men ran towards them.

“Ethan!” Lex cried. Every fiber of her being told her not to leave him, but they needed to save the world and this was their only chance. She couldn’t leave him, but-

“Let me do my job and save you, alright?” Ethan said, pulling her in for one more kiss before shoving her away hard enough for her to stumble and end up a few feet away. He pretended to have a doll tucked under his coat and took off running in the other direction.

Reluctantly, more reluctant than anything she’d ever done in her life, Lex turned and ran. She wasn’t a coward but there was nothing she could do, and the odds were not in their favor. As she got on the escalator, she turned back around and saw how hard they were beating Ethan. Lex covered her mouth to block out her horrified wail. He would be okay. He had to be okay. Right now she had a job to do. He did his, now it was her turn.

\---

Tom knew something was wrong. He couldn’t exactly piece together what was wrong, but something was definitely wrong. Things hadn’t gone to plan, that was one wrong thing. He could think through the situation to know that much was true, but it was as though a heavy green cloud was covering his mind, making him unable to truly understand what was happening and what he needed to do. What he needed to do was find a Wiggly.

He wasn’t a good dad, at least in his mind, he wasn’t as good of a dad as he should have been. Tim never wanted to learn guitar, he’d pressured him to learn for years when all Tim had wanted to do was press the keys of the keyboard Tom got years ago. Now Tim and Hannah were with Emma in the midst of all this, he couldn’t protect them, he had abandoned them again. And Lex, he wasn’t good enough for her, he would never be good enough for her because she deserved more of the world than he could give. But, but, but he could get them a Wiggly. Wiggly said he would make everything better. Wiggly said he would make them all happy.

His children were scarred in so many ways, physically, mentally, emotionally. They had seen parts of the world they should never have had to see, but if Tom got them a Wiggly, they would be happy again. They could be kids again. They would understand how much he loved them. Did they understand how much he loved them? He would do anything for them, he would lie, cheat, beg, steal, kill, for his children. Did they understand that? Wiggly said no, Wiggly said he needed to show his love for them with something tangible. A toy. He needed to give them a Wiggly.

And then there was Becky. Tom loved Becky. He wanted to be with her. Was that not enough? No, because the world was more complicated than that. Love alone wasn’t always enough. Did she understand how much he loved her though? In the past year, she had been his rock, she had helped him with the kids and with his own issues. He could see a life with her. He wanted to date her again. He wanted to be with her again. Truly and deeply be with her again.

He’d fucked up though, hadn’t he? Months had passed and they were still doing this dance around the topic because he was too much of a coward to ask her out and she was too gentle to push. They’d talked so many times without actually saying anything. Over and over he’d promised himself he would tell her how much he loved her, but he never did, he never did it because he was scared and they had plenty of time.

Where did the time go?

Now the world was ending again, his family was separated, and he was there with Becky looking for a doll to fix their problems. What problem was she trying to fix? Him? It was him wasn’t it? What else could be the cause? Tom had royally fucked this whole thing up and now she was so desperate for help about it that she’d fallen under the spell of the monster they’d been sent to kill…

But he was under the spell too, wasn’t he?

That was a strange bit of self awareness the spell didn’t particularly like, given the flood of happy feelings that came right after with the image of the doll in his mind. Yes, he was under the spell, but Wiggly really could save the day, couldn’t he? He was all powerful and great. Tom just needed a doll and his family would be happy. Everyone he loved would be happy. Becky would be happy.

Ethan.

“Ethan!” Tom shouted, running over to the limp form on the ground.

If it weren’t for Ethan’s particular style of dress, he wouldn’t have recognized him. Ethan was so pale he was blue, with his busted lip turning purple and blue as well. Tom was no doctor but kids weren’t supposed to be blue. They also weren’t supposed to be breathing in short gasps like they couldn’t get enough air in while blood bubbled at his mouth. Tom couldn’t see all the injuries, but clearly most of it was internal and chest related.

“Let go,” Becky instructed, her nurse voice kicking in as she pulled his hands away from Ethan’s chest so she could work. “Call for backup.”

Tom pulled out his phone and pulled up the number for the agents waiting outside the mall as she wrestled with Ethan’s clothes to get a better look at his chest. “Schaeffer, this is Houston, Green is down, we need medical assistance now.”

“Tom, they’ve blocked the doors, we can’t get in safely,” Schaeffer said through the phone.

“His lung is likely collapsed, a rib is definitely broken, there’s internal bleeding. He can’t get enough air in, his heart is beating way too fast,” Becky listed off, as she checked his airways and pulse. “We need someone here now.”

Ethan began to cough and choke on the blood in his mouth, causing Becky to swear and do what she could to stabilize his neck with his coat and elevate his head slightly so the blood wouldn’t drown him. “L-Lex?” he rasped. “Did I do good? D-do you think they’ll… they’ll take me now?”

Becky shushed him gently and stroked his hair. “He’s in shock. Did I mention the shock? They need to be here three minutes ago.”

“Schaeffer, he can’t _breathe_. He’s eighteen and he can’t breathe, you’d better get your asses in here now,” Tom ordered, holding Ethan’s hand. “Beck, can we lift him up-”

“Anything we do right now could jostle his rib and make the problem worse,” Becky disagreed, taking the phone from him. “Get your asses in here, I don’t care if your car is totaled. I know you have an ambulance there waiting. He needs to be on it _now_.”

“Yes, Ma’am, where are you?” Schaeffer asked.

“The Lobby of the Cineplex,” Becky stated, handing the phone back to Tom as she went back to checking on her patient.

“Wh-”

Before Tom could finish his question, an explosion ripped through the blocked outdoor entrance to the Cineplex. A camo jeep rode through the debris in a blaze of glory before it suddenly crashed into the wall that led to the theaters. After the dust settled, the car window closest to them rolled down and Code sent them a thumbs up. The ambulance crew rushed through the hole created by the jeep with a stretcher and other medical stuff Tom didn’t understand.

Becky pulled him back, away from Ethan and held him there as the team worked to get him on safely so they could get him help as quickly as possible. He could tell she wanted to help, to be there assisting in making Ethan breathe easier, but he held onto her too, because neither of them were going to do any good in that situation. Soon they were pulling him out and putting him on the ambulance and Tom realized they had a decision to make.

“Are you two staying on mission or are you going back with Green?” Schaeffer called from the jeep.

“I’m staying. I can’t leave Lex here alone,” Tom called back.

“And I’m not leaving him either,” Becky added. “If anything else medical happens I still need to be here. If I hadn’t been here, Ethan would be dead already.”

“Go! Do your jobs! We’ll be here making sure the situation remains contained now that there’s a big hole in the wall!” Code called.

Tom nodded to the pair in the jeep and watched the ambulance leave before taking Becky’s hand and heading once more into the breach. He needed that doll, but more importantly, he needed to make sure his daughter was okay. Lex was missing in a hell hole, and potentially had the one thing everyone was after. If he didn’t find her soon, he might be too late. A second longer and they would have lost Ethan. Tom wasn’t going to risk losing Lex too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ethan Isn't Dead! But that doesn't mean he cannot suffer :). Next chapter will include lots of fun things :).


	31. What is This Thing?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lex tries to form a plan while being hunted by her family. Hannah is trying her best. Becky and Tom have a heart to heart about their relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Life update! We have moved into the new house yaayyy, but most of our stuff is still at the old place, because these things sometimes take time. This story is almost over though! There's one more or so Black Friday chapter, that gonna be the second climax of the story, then maybe a chapter or two after that, probably one but I won't be sure until I get closer. Once it's done, there's one more story planned in the series, it's supposed to be a trilogy, but this specific story has been killing me because the length feels like baggage, so I might have to take a little break if the story doesn't come easy. I also have no idea what's happening with school for the fall, like, I don't intend to be back on campus but it's chaos and idk man the world is wild rn. It is also three thirty am, please forgive me for mistakes within the chapter.
> 
> The chapter title challenge is, as always, going on! If you can name every song the chapter title comes from, I will fill a prompt for you! If you are the person I owe a prompt to, please comment so on this chapter so I can say you when I post it in asides. I wanted to wait to write it until I got my wisdom teeth out but now I've lost the actual comment and I need some help.
> 
> Warnings! Do You Want To Play With Me in the first scene. Third scene has some angst and both the first and third scene talk about blood and bodies and stuff but nothing more detailed than that. Second scene Paul is an anxious noodle.

Lex didn’t know where to go, or what to do. She was alone now, as far as she was aware. Ethan could be dead, her adoptive family was under a spell, and everyone in the building wanted to kill her for a doll. She needed to find a way to stop Wiggly. This wasn’t just about getting the doll to PEIP anymore. They’d hurt Ethan, he could be dead. People were dying, people were killing. It wasn’t right, it wasn’t good. Lex felt like hellfire incarnate.

Never fuck with a pissed off woman, especially not one whose anger was righteous and true, forged through years of mistreatment. Lex would burn down everything Wiggly cared about to protect those she loved, to protect the world. She was the Soul, after all, and she had a job to do. Defending reality was her responsibility and come hell or high water, nothing was going to stop her.

She would think of something, Lex was sure of it. Her gut was guiding her now, and it would continue to do so. She trusted where she was led, closing her eyes and accepting the help. Lex couldn’t hear the voice of Webby, but she could feel her hand, and she had faith that instinct would pull her through. Her sister’s guidance was there too, Lex could recognize the feel of her anywhere, even as she was following a pull in the right direction like a moth to a flame. Lex had no idea yet the plan was, but she would get there.

The mall had been built back in the early nineties, before things started going downhill, before businesses began to pull out for cheaper production outside of the country, before the mill closed down. Now, half of the stores in the mall were closed and the entire place was in desperate need of updating. The more businesses closed because people couldn’t spend money, the more the rest of the shops were asked to pay in rent. It was a vicious cycle that was killing that area of Hatchetfield, had been since the mill closed.

It was depressing, but not as depressing as the devastation that filled the place now. She had a feeling the mall was just going to be demolished after this, no one would want to remember this shit. There were definitely dead people around the halls, definitely injured people that would never fully recover. There was hell to pay for this, for the destruction of her town, her people, her Earth. Lex would not let this go. She had a job to do, she just had to figure out how to do it.

“Lex!”

Shit. Tom.

Lex didn’t respond, ducking into the J.C. Penney and bolting into the maze of clothing racks. She heard Tom and Becky follow after her, but they stopped near the entrance of the store, uncertain what direction Lex had gone in. Keeping her head low to remain hidden, she moved slowly away from them, being as quiet as possible. This was the last thing she needed right now.

“Lexi,” Tom called in a soothing tone. “It’s me, it’s Tom! You can come out, you know I’d never hurt you, neither would Becky, would you, Becky?”

“Of course not,” Becky agreed as the pair crept along the main walkway, hoping to get a glimpse of Lex. “Come on out, Lexi, we’re your family, you can trust us! We just want that doll you have. We saved Ethan! We got him in an ambulance! He’s going to be just fine because we were there. If you come out, we can take you to him. Don’t you want to see your Guardian?”

Good, assuming they were telling the truth, Ethan was going to be okay, or at least get the help he needed. That didn’t quell her rage, but it did give her the ability to drop some of her worry so she could focus on the task at hand. She needed to get out of the store, to sneak past them, but that was easier said than done. They were specifically looking for her and if they caught sight of her at all, they would be after her like rabid animals, just like the others.

“Come on, Lexi, it’s me! It’s your dad! I forgive you for the fight, I forgive you for the flashback. I love you, Lexi, won’t you come give me a hug? We can go home, we can watch ‘Young Frankenstein and all of us can cuddle. Everything is gonna be just fine, if you come out and give me that doll,” Tom assured.

“We love you, Lexi, won’t you come out?” Becky said. “Won’t you give us the doll? If you do, we’ll take you to Ethan, we’ll take you away from here and everything will be okay. If you don’t, you’ll never get to see Ethan again, because you’ll never be able to leave this place! I know how much you love him. If you give us the doll, we’ll protect you, and we’ll all get out of here together. We’re a family!”

That wasn’t fair. Lex had talked to Becky about personal things in the past, about Ethan and her desire for family. They’d had mom talks, the way she assumed moms were supposed to be. It wasn’t fair of the spell to use that against her. Shit was rarely fair though, and Lex was goddamn used to the world beating the crap out of her for fun. They wouldn’t crack her.

Tom let out the strangest of laughs, one that sent shivers down her spine. “Come on, Lexi,” he said, in a voice that didn’t sound like Tom’s at all, “don’t you wove me? Come on, Lexi-poo, come to Daddy, let me make everything better.”

She might not crack emotionally, but that didn’t mean she was going to be able to get away from them. Lex tried her best to creep back towards the entrance now that the pair had gotten further into the store, but with her head down she had no idea where they actually were. Their voices hadn’t gone too far from her, but she’d gotten a fair bit into the store, so if she could get out without-

“There!” Becky shouted.

Shit.

Lex bolted, running into a clothing rack and knocking it over, causing her to stumble. They were there by the time she regained her bearings, and both went to grab her. Tom’s glowing green eyes suddenly dimmed and he grabbed Becky instead, allowing Lex to take off again while Becky shouted behind her. She left them in the dust as she continued on. Lex had no idea where she was going, but she blindly followed the pull she felt from the Black and White.

Destiny be true, Webby protect her. Lex trusted her, and Hannah’s hand to guide her. She would stop this madness if it was the last thing she did.

\---

“Lex!” Hannah gasped as her head shot up. She had been rocking in her chair in an almost trance as she watched the events through the Black and White. Her sister needed her.

Hannah was just as much the Soul as Lex was, and she had a job to do too. She was young, far too young to have to deal with this, but she had her own power. She had her own responsibility. Lex was the enforcer, she was the one who would fight and let the will of reality be known. But Hannah had a role too. She was the guiding hand, she was the one who knew what to do and Lex was the one who made that happen. Hannah had to guide, she had to help, even from so far away. She was never going to leave her sister to fight a threat alone.

“What’s wrong?” Paul asked, kneeling down with concern.

Explaining would be difficult, and Lex still needed her, but if she did not try, they would get worried, and that wouldn’t help. Still, trying to find the right words took precious time away from guiding Lex away from the grown ups. “Fire and brimstone,” she muttered.

“Ethan is safely at the hospital on base,” Xander said, looking up from his control panel for a moment. “Fire and brimstone?”

“Fire and brimstone,” she agreed, “and it all falls down.”

Paul frowned and stood, putting a reassuring hand on Emma’s arm. They were scared. There wasn’t a way to fix that until this was all over. Her words didn’t reassure them like she had intended, but Xander didn’t seem as concerned as Paul and Emma did. If Xander remained calm, if John remained calm, everything would be okay. Probably. Nothing was ever set in stone, that wasn’t how reality worked.

“John is almost back,” Xander said.

“Thank God,” Paul sighed.

“Will he head to the mall then? Since the operation went balls up?” Emma asked.

“No, he’ll be coming back here to help defend the portal,” Xander said.

Lying. He was lying to the grown ups. Well, not entirely. What he said was true, but that wasn’t the reason he was coming back. Hannah knew there was more there than that. They wanted to keep John away from his dad. Hannah wished her dad was there. She was worried about Tom and Becky even more than Lex. Wiggly was watching them closely, they were good and important, and were Warriors. Tom especially had survived one apocalypse already, and had a hand in fixing the problem. They were as big of a threat to his plan as Lex or John. They were under his spell though, for now. It was worrying. Worrying didn’t fix anything though.

Hannah was a Soul, the other half of the role she shared with her sister. Just like Lex, she had a job to do. For Lex to be able to do her job, for her to be able to save the world, Hannah had to play her part, she had to guide her through. They were a two sided coin. Hannah was infinitely glad she had Lex and that Lex had her. They would win this by working together, she just knew it. The universe was infinite but her trust in her sister went even deeper than infinity.

\---

They couldn’t find Lex again after she got away from them. It was both terrifying and frustrating for two separate reasons. Tom loved his daughter and was incredibly worried about her being here alone, without her Guardian. She was strong, she could handle herself, but everyone in the mall was after her right now. How long would it be until she was found by someone who wasn’t keen on protecting her? What would happen then? Tom could see the image of her left bloody on the ground like Ethan had been, abandoned in pursuit of a stupid toy.

At the same time, he wanted that doll too. It was the only one left in the mall, and she had it. He knew she had it. They all knew she had it. Tom wasn’t sure how he knew that, how they all knew that, but he knew it. It was certainly part of the spell, wasn’t it? It was Wiggly’s influence, driving them to get the doll. That knowledge didn’t change his desire for the toy, he needed it, obviously. He could be aware of the influence and be unable to do much about it. It was easier to give in when he had no ground to stand on within his mind to fight it.

Tom huffed and sat against the wall of the mall in one of the alcoves, and Becky sat beside him, listening to the chaos around them. It was shit. What could they do? They needed the doll, but everyone else in the mall thought the same thing. He wanted to protect his family, he wanted to protect Lex, but he was useless it seemed.

He had no memory of the things they’d said to Lex when they’d tried to lure her out. It was like the spell and something else had taken control and handled the situation, convincing him all the while it was all his own desire to do what he was doing. That 

“This has got to be the weirdest year we have ever had,” Tom joked, smiled a bit at Becky.

Becky stared out at the chaos and nodded. “Is it worth it? All of this?”

“What do you mean?” Tom asked, his face falling as he watched her.

“People are dying, people have been dying, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. Ethan might be dead because of this. Should we have let the Hive win? If the world falls to Wiggly, it won’t be a singing apocalypse, it’ll be all blood and death and chaos forever,” she said quietly.

“Beck, look at me,” Tom said, putting a hand on her face so she would look at him in the eyes. “Everything is gonna be okay. We’ll find Lex, we’ll get the doll, we’ll get you one too, and everything will be okay.”

Becky put her hands on his face and looked incredibly sad. “How did we get here? How did we get to be so broken?”

“The world hasn’t been great to us,” Tom said. “The world can be a real dick sometimes. But that doesn’t mean we lose hope, it means you hold strong and forged a way forward through the darkness. You find a new source of light when the universe puts one out.”

“Tom…”

“If the Hive had won, we would be dead, we would all be dead, and we wouldn’t have had the chance to reconnect. I wouldn’t have adopted my girls. A world without you? A world without Lex and Hannah? A world where my son died at the age of nine? That’s not one I want to live in. Jane… Jane was my light, and when she died the world went dark, but I survived, I pushed forward. I found you, I found the girls. You… you are my new light. You and my kids, you’re what makes the world worth it,” Tom continued.

“Tom-”

“Let me finish, okay? I’m not exactly a wordsmith, but I’m on a roll, let me have this,” Tom said, smiling a little.

Becky smiled a bit and gestured for him to continue.

“You’re my new light. I loved you before, in that kinda way that makes you never really stop. I loved Jane with every fiber of my being, but it’s okay to move on, it’s okay to see light in someone I saw light in before. I loved you before, and I love you now, and I’ve been a coward for not saying it. I love you, I’ve been loving you since you came back into my life.

“I want to be your boyfriend, like we’re back in high school. I want to date you! I want to be with you. You’re already part of this family, you deserve to be acknowledged. We’ve talked and talked and talked without actually saying anything. The truth, the solid truth, is that I love you, I want you around me all the time, I want you to get to be the mom of my kids. I want a future with you. I want it to be official. I want to put a label on it, and I want us to go from there,” Tom said. “What do you- I mean- do you-”

He was cut off by a kiss. Becky wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close, kissing him deep and slow as he hugged her around the waist. It was relief, it was desperation, it was fear and it was love. They needed each other, fully and truly. They were broken people, truly broken people, but together they fill each other's cracks and became more whole. Love was not a solution to their problems, but it was a crutch to help them get to a place where they would be okay. One day. 

“Yes,” Becky said breathlessly, “yes, I- of course, I’ll date you again, label and all. I love you so much. I want so badly to be a family with you and the kids. You all mean everything to me, and I love you, so much. I- your eyes are so green.”

“What?” Tom asked, touching his own face.

“Your eyes are green, are mine?” she asked.

“I… weird,”

“What?” she asked nervously.

“They were greener, and now they’re less green? They’re not normal but they aren’t as green as they were,” Tom explained.

“Yours are like that too,” Becky said, stroking his cheek. “But, they’re still so green.”

“Yours are basically normal now,” he said, confused.

“I bet. It’s Wiggly, it’s the spell. I think I’m waking up. You need to wake up too, Tom, so we can help Lex,” Becky said, still stroking his cheek. “We talked through what had me under, now let’s do you.”

“What?” Tom asked.

“The spell was telling me that if I got the doll, you would understand how much I love you and your kids, and that you would finally say you wanted us to be officially together, that you loved me and wanted me. But, I didn’t need the doll or Wiggly for that, you did it all on your own. I still have issues, of course I have issues, but they’re ones I’ve dealt with for a long time that don’t hurt me the way this has been hurting me, so I’m waking up. What’s holding you down?” Becky asked.

“I’ve been hurting you that badly?” Tom asked, his voice soft as it felt like everything was falling down around him.

“Shit, your eyes- no, yes, but it’s okay! We both had issues going into this, it wasn’t just your fault, it was mine too. My fear led me to wait for you to ask, and then the waiting upset me. That part isn’t your fault. You took a while to be okay enough to be in a relationship again after losing your wife, that is more than okay. It did hurt that it took so long, and that it felt for a while like I didn’t have a place in the family but I was acting like a mom anyway. That’s something that’s gotten so much better since Halloween that I haven’t had that problem since. Tom, I forgive you for taking your time. It isn’t just your fault either, I had a part to play too,” Becky insisted.

“I let you on for so long…”

“No, Tom! I knew what I was getting into with you and I did it anyway. We talked the very first night we reunited about it, and I knew exactly what was going on. That isn’t leading someone on, that’s good communication. We haven’t always been the best at it, but we certainly aren’t the worst, and we can get better. We will get better,” she said.

Tom was quiet for a moment as he processed that. That was one part of the spell lifted, that was true, but there was still more Wiggly was offering him that he couldn’t deny he wanted. The protection of his children, for them to be safe and happy and not traumatized. He couldn’t protect them, he was a bad father. He couldn’t even get Lex earlier, could he?

“What else is there pulling you down?” Becky asked quietly, stroking his cheeks with her thumbs as she gently held his face in her hands. “Is it the kids? It’s the kids, isn’t it? Of course it is. Honey, Wiggly can’t do anything for them that he’s telling you. It’s a lie. Look at the chaos of this place, look at the blood and the wreckage. Nothing he’s offering you to do for the kids is true. I know you, Tom Houston, you want to make them happy, you want them to be safe. Wiggly will only cause them pain and suffering, look around you and really see the death and destruction. You don’t want the kids to see this.”

“Lex is here and… I can’t protect her, I couldn’t protect Ethan, I abandoned Tim and Hannah-”

“You did not abandon them, you left them in the care of your sister in law in one of the safest places on the planet so that you could come here and protect Ethan and Lex. And, you did protect Ethan, without us he would have died. You did protect Lex, when we were going after her, you grabbed me instead, you kept me from getting her and let her get away. That was protecting her. We need to find her, we need to get a handle on this situation and make sure she’s okay, but you protected her even when you were so deep under a spell that you weren’t yourself. That is crazy, Tom, that’s crazy impressive. I am so proud of you,” she soothed.

“Proud of me?” Tom asked quietly.

“You are an amazing father, Tom, of course I’m proud. You’re amazing with them, and you always put them first. They need you, not Wiggly. They need you, Tom Houston. They don’t want a Wiggly, they want their dad to come home safe. Lex is out there right now in need of backup. You need to wake up so we can go be there for her. Can you do that?” Becky asked.

Tom thought long and hard about that. He didn’t want to let them down, he couldn’t let them down. He had already caused them pain. No, Tom was not the reason Jane was dead, but the way he responded to her death caused Tim a great deal of suffering that he wasn’t sure could ever be fully healed… though… now that he thought about it, their relationship had greatly improved after the Apotheosis, he’d taken a lot of care to listen to him and they had been doing pretty well. Maybe it wasn’t as bleak as it seemed. And, Hannah… how had he hurt her? Tom couldn’t actually think of a way. Lex though, Lex-... but she was a teen, fights were bound to happen, and that was okay. He needed to listen to them more, he needed to appreciate them more.

But… in the end, none of it was unfixable. He didn’t need the doll in order to protect them, he didn’t need Wiggly in order to never fail them again. He would fail, and that was okay. Tom was human, and humans made mistakes. That was okay. He could always improve. That was the beauty of being alive, the ability to change for the better. Wiggly couldn’t change. He was evil and would never alter that course. Tom didn’t need that shit in his life, he needed his kids.

_No, Tom! Stay asleep! Stay in drowsy town!_

“You know, the doll isn’t even cute. It’s real fucking ugly.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tom being taken over momentarily by Wiggly was this universe's Not Ethan moment and may or may not come up in any significant way later. It probably won't except maybe some after effects of it, since unlike when Paul had that happen, Tom wasn't already possessed, he was just asleep within his mind.
> 
> Warning! Next chapter might get a little trippy, be warned! We're dealing with the Black and White again, and like in WTH, any scenes that take place there follow a logic that isn't entirely logical.


	32. The Black and White

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lex decides to fist fight god and gets a bit lost on her way back, resulting in others needing to help her. Becky and Tom take on the cult and save five people before the mall burns down, killing one person in the process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, I finished this around five thirty am and wrote the first scene and half of the second at a different time. Also, it is long, like 11 pages long. I decided all of this needed to be one chapter so congrats you get an EXTRA long chapter after a long pause.
> 
> I am sorry it has been a while since another chapter came out. My dad died August 13th and it has been hard to write. I do want to finish this series though because he always asked me about how the story was going and if I was gonna finish it. For him, Web Tied will have its conclusion. There will be a third story, though I don't know how long it will be, definitely not as long as Souls since this story is really two put together in one due to how close together they are in time that they blend together. The next story will take place about eight months from the end of this story, and exists because of why it is going to begin roughly eight months from the end of this story yes I mean Charlotte, I couldn't leave that hang. Plus, Souls isn't going to end like a good final ending, it's just not built to be that. After that I may write some epilogue because I love Paul and Emma's children.
> 
> All that said, I may take a break from Web Tied after Souls ends to focus on Tried and True to finish that up, and a Starship story I have cooking in my head if people seem interested in it. Souls has killed me in many ways, and I think I will need some space from it before I continue Web Tied. I've put a whole lot of myself and stuff in it and I think I need a break once it's no longer hanging over me.
> 
> Warnings! This chapter has injuries, blood, fire, death, lots of tension, dematerialization. This is the end of the climax, it's not a fluff chapter. If you can't read that right now, feel free not to, but this is a stressful chapter for everyone involved including me, which is why it took me so long to write it. I wanted to get it right and I'm not sure I got it, but I got something good enough before I edit the entire story.

Lex didn’t consider herself to be a particularly violent person. Indeed, she could kick ass when she wanted to, when she needed to, but she never started shit. Other people lit the fuse and set her off. Now it was her turn to light the fuse, wasn’t it? She knew what she had to do, or what she needed to attempt. There was no guarantee of success in life, and certainly no guarantee of success against a terrible fuzzy monster, but Wiggly started this fight, he lit the fuse, it was only fair that she would burn him to the ground.

She hadn’t smoked since recovering from the Apotheosis. It was a terrible and traumatic event, yeah, but you can’t say it didn’t have any positives. She had absolutely no draw to smoke again after waking up, not even when Ethan or Deb lit up. The Apotheosis killed her, but it also killed her nicotine addiction, and that was a definite bonus with a new little brother who couldn’t stop coughing around cigarette smoke. It didn’t, however, kill her habit of carrying around a lighter.

It was surprising how useful having a lighter in one's pocket could be. If anyone needed a light, she had it, if she needed to start a candle going because the power went off, she was set, if she needed to start a fire when they were at the lakeside, they were golden. Plus, burning her homework was therapeutic after having to retake her year of school. Hannah also liked to watch it when she got upset, because if she breathed too hard it would go out. It was a good way to stop panic attacks. It was also a good way to stop an interdimensional would-be god.

Lex climbed over the counter of one of the restaurants in the food court. She knew well what she was looking for, she’d researched this more than was reasonably healthy, but surprisingly it was coming in handy. The food court had been abandoned by the adults roaming the mall, they seemed to be gathering a ways away, though she didn’t know why. Whatever reason it may be, she had a few moments to search for her desired object.

Alcohol.

Not to drink! And if she wasn’t planning what she was planning, she would have summoned one from somewhere else, but she wanted to conserve her energy. No, she didn’t need alcohol to drink, she needed it to attack Wiggly in a way that would cause more damage than her lighter ever could. There! Lex finally found the bottle of ‘cooking’ alcohol she knew the place always had and sat it on the counter. She took off her vest and grabbed a knife, cutting it to form a strip of fabric.

If only it weren’t polyester. Fake fabrics like that burn way too quickly, hell, they fucking melt when under a flame. It meant she would have less time because it would burn quickly, but she wasn’t going to cut up anything else right now. Her winter jacket would be too hard to cut without scissors, and her shirt would be too light and would float at the top of the alcohol rather than sticking in it. The polyester wasn’t great but it was thick enough that it would go straight down. She didn’t have time to get a funnel and another bottle.

Lex poured some of the alcohol on the strip of fabric and shoved part of it into the bottle, making sure it was in fact inside the liquid, doing the pouring over top of the Wiggly doll so it could catch the vodka that fell from the bottle. Once she was done, she piled flammable things around the doll on the stove in hopes that her hypothesis was correct. She didn’t have a second chance at this. If she failed she was dead. If she succeeded, she could also be dead. Lex honestly had no idea if she would be able to come back from where she was going, but she had to try. Even with the training from John, she didn’t know the extent of her powers, but really, this should totally work, right?

Right?

Lex didn’t know much about the Black and White, but she knew she could move things through it, and into it, and out of it. It wasn’t a stretch to believe she could take herself there, right? She knew she would have a limited time there before she would die, five whole minutes to figure out a way back. From what she heard, the getting out part was harder than getting in. Still, she had a job to do, she had to stop this before anyone else got hurt. She closed her eyes and held the bottle tightly in her hand.

For a moment she thought of the last time she’d used her power on a vodka bottle, that day she was showing the professor what she could do. It was strange how much had happened in only two months. She wondered if this was what it was like when the Apotheosis happened, with craziness happening all the time. If it was, she was glad that she hadn’t been there. This whole situation was enough for her.

Was it fair that she had to do this? Risk her life at such a young age, potentially sacrificing herself in order to save humanity? No. But by God she wasn’t going to stop fighting just because life wasn’t fair. Lex promised her dad they would watch that stupid old movie on the weekend and she intended to keep that promise, regardless of how unfair the universe was. If she died there, it would be for a good cause, and though dying was the last thing she wanted to do, if she did it to protect the ones she loved, it would be alright.

With that final thought, Lex focused on herself and her power, using it to pull herself into the Black and White.

\---

“Prophet! Prophet! Mommy! Prophet!” the crowd shouted at the blond woman on the stairs.

Deb was terrified, but also incredibly annoyed that Linda fucking Monroe would be her downfall. She knew the woman from her adoptive family’s parties growing up and had hated her more than most of them. Hell, even her husband was alright, it was that woman who was just the worst. Of all the people in the world that could have killed her, it had to be the biggest bitch Hatchetfield.

“Quiet! Quiet! Which one is the teenage girl with the doll?” Mrs. Monroe asked the cultists.

Beside her, Alice was crying softly. Their hands were tied behind their backs so they couldn’t hold hands and Deb wanted more than ever to hold Alice. Deb had no idea how she’d remained so calm in spite of all this, but she thought it might have to do with the fact that Alice had been so scared. Fuck her anxiety, she had to keep calm so Alice wouldn’t have to look out into the crowd and potentially see her father there, wanting them to kill her. Deb didn’t want to think about seeing Ted and Charlotte out there, instead she focused on the bitchy blond.

“We don’t know! We just found two teenage girls and we just… assumed… one of them… would have it…” one of the cultists said, the one who looked homeless.

Mrs. Monroe rolled her eyes. “Very well, bring me the doll!”

The cultists suddenly began searching all over the girls, causing Alice to cry out in panic. It wasn’t long before it ended though, as it was very clear neither had a doll. The room grew quiet as the realization dawned on everyone. They had not in fact found the right teenage girl, and now had two useless ones to deal with.

“Where is it!?!” Mrs. Monroe cried, clicking the button to make her box cutter’s blade come out.

“Where’s what?!” Deb replied. “You thought we had that ugly green piece of shit?! No way! We’ve never had one of them, you can sniff us or whatever, we don’t know where one is… so you can let us go and everything’s good.”

“We can’t just let you go! You don’t worship Wiggly! That simply won’t do. Either you learn the error of your ways or you die, it’s that simple,” Mrs. Monroe said.

“I just want my dad,” Alice whimpered tearfully. “I don’t wanna worship a doll, I just want my dad back, please.”

Mrs. Monroe rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “Children are so needy. ‘I want my daddy!’ this and ‘please let me live’ that, and ‘you said you’d pick us up from school why are you an hour late Max has been crying for half an hour straight and Gerald Jr. tried to eat a screw’.”

“Maybe pick up your fucking kids, Jesus Christ, what kind of parent are you?!” Deb cried.

“I learned everything I know about parenting from a book your parents gave me,” Mrs. Monroe stated.

“No fucking wonder you’re a bad mom, shit,” Deb said. After that came out of her mouth, she realized, oh, she probably shouldn’t be saying things that could agitate the woman threatening them with a box cutter.

“I am not a bad mother!” Mrs. Monroe screamed, waving the weapon at her. “I am a great mother! I’m going to get four of these dolls for my sons and they’ll love me forever!”

Movement came from behind them, towards where the door was, and the sound of a gun’s safety coming off broke the silence. “Four dolls won’t change the fact that your husband divorced you for being a terrible person, Linda,” a woman’s even voice said.

Mrs.- Linda stomped her foot and laughed. “Becky Barnes! God damn it, you’re at it again, thinking you can do anything at all, thinking you can be a hero. Where did you even get a gun?! Do you even know how to use that thing?! Even if you did, you’re too much of a failure to actually hit anything!”

Deb turned around quickly and saw Mr. Houston and a woman she only knew in passing who was pointing a gun at Linda. Mr. Houston had Swiss army knife that he was pointing at the various cult freaks who looked like they would attack while Becky aimed straight at Linda. They didn’t look like the heroic badasses in the movies that saved the day, but they seemed serious about what they were doing, and their eyes weren’t green, so, that was a positive.

“You really are dumb as shit if you’re mocking the person pointing a gun at you,” Mr. Houston commented.

“You do everything you can to tear down other people, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re a sad and lonely person. Denounce your god and stop this, Linda, I won’t tell you to do it again,” Becky warned.

“Please, if you were capable of shooting me, I would already be dead. You’re useless, Becky Barnes. That husband of yours was right to leave you, and you deserve everything he gave you, because you are weak willed and incapable of doing anything that actually matters. Look at you, standing there, frozen in your fear,” Linda said with a laugh.

Becky’s face didn’t falter at all from her words, and she simply retorted, “I’m not frozen, I was just lining up my shot. PEIP sends its regards.”

A shot rang out and Linda collapsed, her head blown open from the bullet. The cultists swarmed her, holding her and calling her mother as Mr. Houston slashed open the teens’ bindings and pulled them away from the body and the freaks. Deb hugged Alice close, who shook as she cried in her arms. It wasn’t over, people were still fucking possessed by a doll, and they had no idea where their parents were, but they weren’t tied up and about to be cut open by a bitch with a box cutter.

Deb gasped as she was struck by the images of fire once more, her head falling back as she saw the scene again, clearer this time. Lex. “Lex?”

\---

Lex had mentally been in the Black and White before, she remembered it from when she was infected. Nothing was solid there, it was like waves of white and black lines overlapping on top of each other while the ground beneath you was nonexistent because it was not a physical place, constantly shifting around her. It was incredibly dark, but bright at the same time like reflections on something shiny coming from a light that didn’t exist as far as you could see. There was no geography because there was nothing physical. The ground beneath her feet wasn’t really ground, it was a construct that seemed like ground made of the same material as the world around her.

When she was there before, she had also been made of the same materials, she looked as if she’d been drawn in black and white pen or something, no grays, but shades of black and darker black made shading when there was no light to see. Now that she was there as a physical being, she had her same color as she had in the physical world, she looked the same as before, but she could see how the longer she was there, the more layers of her being were turned into that same black and white material everything else was. Not a good sign, but a sign nevertheless.

Another thing that seemed to have color was the large, fuzzy, tentacled creature that was three stories high and twice as wide that was standing before her. Though he was green, this Wiggly was just as shifting as the rest of the things belonging to the Black and White, like animation done in a green pen with careful effort into the texture of the slimy tentacles and the fur that surrounded his glowing eyes. Lex understood in that moment why people in those Lovecraft stories went insane after seeing eldritch beings. He was horrifying. He was awe inducing. Lex didn’t have the vocabulary to express how terrifying and awesome, like the original meaning of the words, not how it was used now, he was.

And she was going to kill him.

“Hey, Wiggly!” Lex called. Distance didn’t really exist there, but she was far enough away to call over to him rather than speak, a few yards or meters or whatever maybe? It was impossible to tell because the world around them changed constantly, making him appear closer or further depending on the moment. She flicked her lighter, trying to get it to light. It didn’t. She tried again. No. Shit. It had to work. Fuck it, she would _make_ it work. Lex got herself there, didn’t she? Why not- finally the lighter lit, true light in the Black and White where fire may never have existed previously.

“Have you come to sacwifice youwself to me, after all the pwoblems you caused me, you wittle shit?” Wiggly asked.

“No, I came here to tell you that Earth isn’t for the taking, and that your owo shit is _so_ late 2000s, it’s 2019, get with the program,” Lex said, lighting the damp fabric aflame and throwing the bottle at Wiggly.

Due to his enormous size, her throw struck true, causing the bottle to shatter and spread the now flaming liquid over his fur. Between the excelerent and his already quite flammable fur, his entire body was soon alight, and his screams echoed through the entire Black and White as he struggled to try and escape the flames, to no avail. No beings in that strange dimension would be left unaware of what Lex did, she knew that to be true. They would know not to fuck with Earth, at least for a while.

She whimpered as she began to feel the dematerialization taking place, the Black and White having taken enough layers off of her that she could actually feel it happening. Lex knew she was running out of time, that it would only get worse and harder to escape the longer she was there, but it had already been a minute or so and she was starting to get confused. The shifty nature of the Black and White made it hard to concentrate on pulling herself back home as her mind was beginning to shift with it.

The sickening realization that she wouldn’t be able to get out without help dawned on her as she watched Wiggly continue to scream and melt. She had never had contact with that Webby thing, and didn’t know how to start. All she could think of was the sight in front of her, of the massive fire and the beings of Wiggly’s creation burning along with him. Lex wasn’t sure she’d ever been so scared and so sure she would die before in her life, but this very well could be the end of her life, so she thought that fear was justified. She didn’t know what to do, she didn’t know where to go, she felt more lost than she ever had before.

Hands, calloused from years working with weapons of differing varieties, cupped her cheeks gently and pulled her eyes to the scared face of a tall man in his late thirties or early forties wearing more denim than the fashion police would ever allow. Despite not knowing him, she knew him to be Wilbur Cross, she knew him to be John’s father, both from what she had been told and what she could tell now as her mind became more and more part of the Black and White. “Call to your sister. Call to Johnny. They can save you, call them now,” Wilbur said in a calm but authoritative tone.

Hannah. Her sister, Hannah, the most important person in her life, of course. “HANNAH!” Lex shouted, tears falling from her eyes as she mentally begged for her sister to hear her. She didn’t want Hannah to enter the Black and White and meet the same fate as her, but she needed her sister now more than ever. There was no way she would survive without her.

\---

_HANNAH!_

“LEX!” Hannah shouted, immediately standing and looking to the portal. 

“Shit,” said the General, who had just returned from his trip and seemed to be able to hear the plea for help as well.

“What’s happening?” Xander asked quickly.

“There’s no time,” John said. He pulled Xander close and kissed him. “I love you. I need to go.”

Hannah watched and shook her head. She knew for a fact that his connection to Lex wasn’t strong enough to find her in time as far in as she was, but her own connection to her sister would draw Hannah to her. Her ties to Lex were stronger, meaning her pull to her sister would be easier to follow than his, which would pull him less. Intention mattered and would help him, but they clearly had no time to waste when she had just as much intention as the grown up did.

“Hannah, no!” Paul shouted, his reaction just slightly quicker than Emma’s as Hannah darted forward, allowing the natural pull she felt towards the Black and White to drag her in.

\---

“Lex? What about Lex?” Tom asked, pulling the girls out of the toy store and into the hall where there were less cultists.

“She started the fire. The fire I saw in the vision, that was the fire, she started the fire, and I don’t know where she is,” Deb said quickly.

Suddenly, an alarm began to sound through the mall, making the four of them jump. The rest of the people around them seemed to wake up, their eyes no longer green, though the most loyal ones in the toy store still seemed to be acting possessed. Whatever Lex did, it worked, but Tom had no idea where she was, or how to help.

“We need to get out of here, that’s the fire alarm,” Becky warned, grabbing his arm to bring him back to the situation.

“I’m not leaving Lex,” Tom said firmly.

“She isn’t here anymore,” Deb insisted. “She isn’t in the mall.”

“Then where the fuck is she?!” Tom cried.

“I don’t fucking know, but she isn’t in the mall!” Deb said, gesturing towards where the smoke was coming from. “She did that and now she’s gone!”

“We need to leave, _now_ , before the smoke gets too bad to get out where the car broke in,” Becky insisted.

“What about my dad? What about Ted and Charlotte?” Alice asked nervously.

Tom paused, mentally swearing. Of course these kids had their parents there, they wouldn’t be in the mall that day without them. He had to get them out of there whether or not their parents got out because he couldn’t go around saving everybody, right now the kids were his responsibility. “There’s a way out by the cineplex, a truck broke through the doors and the barrier. We go out that way, other people will follow, everything is gonna be fine,” he said calmly.

Deb didn’t fall for it though, shaking her head. “No, Charlotte’s in a wheelchair, even if they did burst through it’s gonna be hell trying to get her out in one piece, I don’t want to lose my dad and her before I get to know them. I’m not leaving without them.”

Tom took a deep breath and looked to Becky. “You think you can get them out in one piece while I look for those three? They’ll be around here somewhere.”

“We’ll be fine. Hurry out. They clearly haven’t been maintaining the sprinklers and the smoke is growing fast. The cineplex is below the cafeteria, you won’t have much time,” she said, kissing his cheek.

Tom kissed her on the lips before pulling away. “Be careful, alright? I’ll be fine, you three go.”

Becky nodded and took the teens by the hands, pulling them through the wreckage of the mall towards the exit as Tom turned to look through the confused people for faces he recognized. He prayed to whatever gods there may or may not be that the three of them would get out safely, and that Lex was alright, but he knew he had to focus on his current task or he would lose valuable time. The black smoke was filling up the ceiling, and Tom was glad they were on the first floor so he would have a little extra time before the smoke became a problem. The fact that it was growing so rapidly was a bad sign of what was to come though. Considering where it seemed to be coming from, the cafeteria (which Becky was right about he would have to compliment her later once they were out of danger), it likely meant the fire would spread quickly.

Tom wished he’d known his daughter was such a good arsonist, if only so he could warn her about not fucking burning the mall down. He weaved his way through the people, shouting that they needed to make their way to the cineplex, which some seemed to listen to. They hadn’t gotten out of the spell naturally, they were going through something he could not understand as they came out of it now. Lex did something to Wiggly, something serious. He prayed she wasn’t doing something that would get her killed.

“It’s gonna be okay, okay? We’re gonna be fine, we’ll find the girls and everything will be fine,” Tom heard a familiar voice say.

“Ted!” Tom called as he saw three familiar people huddled to the side near a potted plant that had been broken in the chaos. Charlotte’s wheelchair seemed damaged, it was leaning badly and the wheel closest to the wall was bent inwards as if it had been pushed hard against something. She seemed shaken up and stressed but otherwise fine, while Ted had a cut on his forehead that was bleeding a fair bit, and had his injured arm back in a quickly made sling. Bill had a bleeding wound in his core which he was clutching as he leaned against the wall.

“Tom, thank god!” Bill said, sounding a bit out of it. Blood loss, great, at least Ted would be able to help him out.

“We need to go, now,” Tom said, gesturing to the rapidly increasing amount of smoke above them.

“My wheelchair won’t move and they can’t carry me,” Charlotte explained with a terrified look in her eyes.

“I can carry you,” Tom assured, picking her up without much difficulty. “Ted, you help Bill out, we gotta get to the cineplex, it’s our way out. Bill, do you think you can walk that far?”

“I’ll be fine. Have you seen Alice?” Bill asked. He wrapped an arm around Ted’s shoulders and kept the other around his wound as Ted used his good arm to hold Bill more securely.

“And Deb. Did you see Deb?” Ted asked nervously.

Tom gestured with his head for them to follow him. “They’re mostly alright, Becky was getting them out and we’re gonna meet them there,” he assured.

“What about your kids?” Bill asked, a wince audible in his voice as he struggled to keep up.

“Hannah and Tim are safe with Emma and Paul, Ethan is at the hospital, and I don’t know where Lex is but she isn’t here anymore, according to Deb,” Tom said.

“What?” Ted asked.

“Fuck if I know,” Tom replied. He was fine with the talking, the talking meant that Bill and Ted were still conscious. “When Deb gets like that she only half way makes sense about anything.”

“Hey!” Bill said, sounding a bit offended. “She’s a good kid, she’s just not good at expressing herself.”

“She gets it honest,” Ted joked as they shuffled along.

Tom wished they would move faster, but between their injuries, there was only so fast they could go. He was watching the smoke fill the second floor of the mall, and he could see the flames now as they got closer. It was terrifying, but if he could keep them calm it would be better. The air quality was getting worse too, but all Tom could think about was the visibility problems it caused. “I didn’t mean any offense, she had no clue where my daughter is, just that ‘she isn’t here anymore’ and I have no idea what the fuck that means.”

“She really is a good kid, I know we’ll never be friends or anything, but she’s a good kid and I’m glad Alice found someone like her to be her first big relationship,” Bill said.

“We can have this talk at the hospital,” Tom said, growing a bit concerned because when talk started to get like that, it meant they were starting to give up. He coughed a bit in spite of himself, tripping up over some debris as he did. “We’re almost there, you can see the smashed shit now, look.”

“Fuck, I’m tired,” Ted muttered, stumbling some.

“Ted!” Charlotte cried, which caused Ted to shake his head and regain his footing.

“We’re almost there, come on,” Tom said. He wished he had more goddamn hands so he could carry all of them. They could see the wall of windows now, and thankfully Becky and the girls seemed to have been pulled a safe distance away and were being checked over by paramedics.

“Alice?!” Bill called as soon as they got out of the large hole in the wall.

“Dad!” Alice cried, though she was kept from running to him for her safety.

Paramedics swarmed them and Tom found himself swept up in that as they took Charlotte from him and grabbed the guys behind him. He was sitting on the edge of the ambulance with a mask on his face that was pushing clean air at him before he could understand what was happening. It was a relief he hadn’t noticed he’d needed in his rush to get the four of them out of the mall. There were multiple ambulances waiting there, and one was rushing off soon with, he assumed, the parents and their kids in it. More people were exiting the mall, and Becky sat next to him as they watched the flood. He knew, according to Deb, that his daughter wasn’t in there, but he couldn’t help but look at every face and pray.

\---

When Hannah ran into the portal, John gave Xander one last look to express all he could for him and bolted in after her. He had been in the Black and White before, he had more experience with the place than either of the girls did, and he knew he couldn’t let them do this alone, not when there was an overwhelming chance that they would die if he did. John was wise enough to know he couldn’t find Lex in time without Hannah, but he never would have allowed her to go in if she had given him the choice.

They didn’t have time to argue though, and as much as he hated that a child was in the Black and White physically, he couldn’t save Lex without her. He wished they could have gone over mentally rather than physically like he had been training Hannah to do, but because Lex was there in the flesh, the only way they could get her out was actually being there. He hoped desperately that they wouldn’t be too late.

There was no way Lex hadn’t already begun to dematerialize, but if they got her back soon, it wouldn’t kill her. They ran, with Hannah leading the way like she could see some line in the nonexistent ground that he could only faintly see until they saw the melted form of what had been Wiggly in the distance, and two forms standing a bit away from it.

“Wilbur?” John called.

“Get this girl out of here, now!” Wilbur replied, gently pushing the shaking teen towards them.

“Lex,” Hannah said as she reached her sister, holding her hand tightly like that could stop the dematerialization.

John nodded to Wilbur and looked back towards where they came from. He realized he wasn’t sure the way now, because of the shifting nature of the place. They were in further than he had been before, and the place was difficult to navigate. He couldn’t let Hannah worry though, because he knew she was more likely to be able to lead them out than he was. Her connection to the Black and White was stronger in the way of seeing than his was. John didn’t pause to consider that though, instead he scooped Lex up in his arms and looked to Hannah.

“I will carry her, you must guide,” John ordered.

Hannah nodded, still holding Lex’s hand as she began to lead them quickly towards the portal. John could see that he was beginning to lose layers to the Black and White, but it wasn’t bad yet, not like Lex’s was. Hannah seemed to be facing no real difficulty, she almost seemed to glow. John could recognize Webby’s touch when he saw it, she was protecting the child as best she could it seemed. He thanked her with his mind as they rushed toward the portal, focusing on keeping a hold of Lex and not letting them slip from Hannah’s grasp as she led them.

They stumbled through the portal, back into the material plane with moments to spare and all John could see was black as the dematerialization caught up to him, causing him to quickly collapse with Lex in his arms. He heard the shouting of the room, felt the girl being removed from his arms, felt hands on him, a voice speaking to him, before every other sense faded away and he was left alone as he fell fully unconscious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this story doesn't follow the Monroes, I think I should alert you that because Gerald and the kids survived the Apotheosis, Gerald realized how shitty Linda was to him and the kids and that he didn't need her, and got a divorce once she was alive again. That was what Becky was referencing. I know a lot of people like Linda because idk she's Lauren and Lauren is pretty and stuff, but she is personally the kind of person I have hated my entire life and met a lot. Sorry to those that love her but she does not get a happy ending from me unless in some story I make her go to therapy to realize what she's doing is wrong but frankly I don't think she cares enough about anyone but herself to actually do that.
> 
> Next chapter isn't gonna necessarily be fluff but it WILL be recovery.


	33. Make it Alright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The apocalypse ended two hours ago and people are recovering as best they can. Tom is reunited with his kids. Paul checks on his friends and tries very hard to be emotionally supportive when he Isn't Great At That. Emma has a chat with Becky Barnes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am alive! It is still hard to write but Nightmare Time has brought back some of my spark and that has led me to work on a Nightmare Time story on the side which will probably go up at some point but I am unsure at this time. I have a test for grad school on Wednesday and I have to make up a lot of school work so woooo. But hey! I got a new computer because my old one decided to die, that was exciting. 
> 
> This chapter is mostly transitional and covering a base level of "what's going on where are we how is everyone doing". I wanted it to be the last chapter but I couldn't swing it, sorry! Next chapter which will hopefully be soon, hopefully this week, I won't promise tomorrow but I may try it if I can. This story leave off a lot of lose ends because the third story will tie them off, it's the middle of a trilogy, you know? It's not gonna be all clean if I want Plot for the third story! I will say Nightmare Time, specifically episodes 2 and 3 have been VERY helpful for the next story and for various other things. I'm not necessarily going to include spoilers on purpose but Nightmare Time WILL influence my writing from here on. The way episode 2 has made my life easier for the third story will NOT make sense until we get there and it has nothing to do with what you may think because the concept came way before the stories did.
> 
> Warnings! There is talk of burns and skin being gone. Sorry. I tried not to go into detail but the imagery is gross, that's the first scene. Mentions of violence in the second scene, mentions of murder in the third. Nothing too bad honestly, if you've gotten this far into the story you understand the state the characters are in, it's just a recap and an expression of their recovery.

A bustling hospital was never a good thing. Two major incidents within a month’s time was disastrous but they were managing as best they could. Luckily, there were less injured people this time, but the injuries were as a whole more difficult to treat due to the fire. When Wiggly burned, so too did every doll on their plane of existence, meaning even people who had escaped the doll were coming in with burns.

As soon as she was cleared by the staff, Becky had left Tom’s side so she could help treat the swarm of patients. Tom had been cleared not long after, though because of the rush and the fact that he was not bad off meant it took about two hours from the time he arrived to when he was released. His lungs didn’t require any treatment, just rest to recover from the smoke inhalation. He would have time for that later, once he’d found his girls. The moment they arrived, they had been told both girls were involved in something, but the rushed nurse didn’t have any more details and had to hurry off. Tom didn’t blame her, but he needed to find his daughters.

“Tom!” Becky called, waving him into a room before darting out to check on someone else, giving him a peck on the cheek as she went.

Tom weaved through the busy hallway and into the room. The moment he entered he was nearly tackled by his son who hugged him tightly. “Hey, Bud, what’s happening?” he asked, looking around the rest of the room. Hannah was curled up with her knees to her chest in a chair next to Lex who had bandages covering her skin, just like General McNamara who was in the other bed in the room. Paul, Emma, and Xander were sitting in the room as well in various chairs, but Emma quickly sprang up to hug him as well.

“You’re okay!” Tim said. “You smell like fire.”

“Thank God you’re alright, we had no idea what was happening,” Emma said, trying to dust some of the dirt off of his flannel.

“You’re going to need to debrief,” Xander said. “What happened? Where did the fire come from?”

“Lex,” Hannah said quietly, hugging her knees and watching her sister breathe softly.

Tom nodded as he walked over, opening up one arm to see if she wanted a hug. Hannah leaned towards him to indicate that she did, and he held her close as she sat in the chair, having his other arm still wrapped around Tim. “Lex is the only one who really knows I think. Deb said she did something with the fire, which I totally believe, and that she wasn’t at the mall anymore. Next thing we know the alarm goes off and smoke is in the air. I got out your friends, Paul.”

“Thank God, are they alright? I knew Bill was going to be there but- wait, were Ted and Charlotte there too?” Paul asked.

“And Deb and Alice, yeah. Charlotte’s gonna need a new chair, hers got busted up and I had to carry her out. I think Bill mighta been stabbed but I don’t know for sure, I just know he was bleeding from his gut area, and I think Ted got his head banged and his shoulder messed up again, but I’m no doctor. I helped them out, I dropped them off with an ambulance, then in the rush they were gone and Beck and I were in a different ambulance, so I have no idea what’s up with them now,” Tom explained.

“I-” Paul said, looking to Emma for her blessing to leave.

“Go, find them, come back when you know how they’re doing,” Emma said, squeezing his arm and gently pushing him towards the door.

Paul kissed her forehead and headed out to find them, giving Tom a pat on the shoulder as he went. Tom raised a hand to say goodbye to him as he left before turning to Xander. “What the hell happened to my daughter?” Tom asked.

“Lex somehow transported herself physically into the Black and White. As far as we’re aware, she somehow caught him on fire, causing all of the dolls to burn here on Earth. John and Hannah went in to rescue her, they came out… Hannah was mostly fine, but she hasn’t spoken since coming out of the portal, not until you came in, and both Lex and John have been unconscious since arriving, so we haven’t gotten many answers,” Xander explained, looking to his husband.

“What… happened… to them? What’s wrong with Lexie?” Tom asked.

“Same thing that happened to John back in early October, they suffered dematerialization. Lex is worse off, John’s is about the same as last time, but he was still regaining that skin so it isn’t great. Think of it like a burn without burning, or skinning your knee but your entire body,” Xander tried to explain.

“So it’s pretty painful,” Tom said, letting go of Tim for a moment to brush Lex’s thinned hair from her bandage covered face. “It fucked up her hair, she won’t be happy about that.”

“No,” Xander said with a small laugh. “No, John wasn’t happy about it either, he’ll be quite upset now since it fucked up his hair even more than it had been before. He won’t be happy about being in a room with other people either, but since it’s Lex I’m sure he’ll let it slide until our normal room opens up. His hair is still slightly better than Lex’s though I think.”

“God, she doesn’t even know about Ethan,” Tom said, wrapping his arm around his son again.

“What happened to Ethan?” Emma asked with a frown.

Tom sighed. “Hannah, can you scooch a bit so I can sit down too? It’s been a really long day,” he asked, which she obliged by temporarily standing up so he could sit, and then sitting on his lap. Tom got Tim to sit too so he could hug both of his younger kids at once. “We only caught the tail end of it, but he got beat to shit, he couldn’t breathe. We got Schaeffer to ram through the glass wall of the cineplex so he could get help. I have no idea how he’s doing now, I haven’t gotten the chance to find him.”

“I’ll find that out for you, don’t move, okay?” Emma asked, starting towards the door. “And before I go, are you alright? You do smell terrible.”

“Thanks, it’s the blood and smoke,” Tom said sarcastically. “I’ll be fine, they gave me some air, I’ll be alright. I got caught up in the spell but Becky pulled me out, and she pulled herself out and killed Linda Monroe to stop the apocalypse so there’s that.”

“What the shit?” Emma cried, eyes wide. “She did what?!”

“Linda, she killed her. She was the cult leader, she was gonna hurt the girls, Becky shot her about the same time Lex did the fire thing,” Tom said with a shrug.

“Becky is a badass? Since when?!” Emma asked.

“Since she drank a beer and punched Linda for being a bitch in high school,” Tom joked.

Emma drew back and shook her head. “Shit, remind me never to get on her bad side. I’m gonna go find Ethan.”

“Good luck,” Tom said, waving as she went.

He allowed himself a moment to hold his children and thank the powers that be for the fact that he could do this, for the fact that they were all alive as far as he knew. His children were there, they were safe, Becky was safe. Lex would have to heal, but she would heal, they would all heal, and everything would be okay. It would take time, but there was nothing that could not be recovered from.

\---

“Paul!” Charlotte cried with a smile. She was sitting in a chair between Ted and Bill while the girls were curled up in the corner on blankets and coats sleeping soundly. Bill was also asleep, but Ted was awake and out of it with a loving smile directed towards Charlotte. There was a hospital wheelchair beside her in case she needed it as well.

“Charlotte!” Paul said, relieved. “How are you? What is everyone?”

“Oh we’re good!” Charlotte said. “Or, well, we’re okay.”

“I got my head hit,” Ted said slowly, clearly on pain medication.

“Yes, Teddy, they hit your head because you tried to be brave and protect me, I am very proud of you,” Charlotte said. “Bill got stabbed by that guy who’s always rushing around. He was hurrying off to the toy store and we were in the way I guess. He pushed my wheelchair out of the way and Bill tried to tell him off and the guy stabbed him! Then Ted yelled at them for pushing me and stabbing Bill and they tussled some before the man’s friend came up behind him and hit his head. It was all very scary, I’m glad you weren’t there, Paul!”

“Yeah, we were with the PEIPs taking care of Emma’s niece and nephew… It’s been a really weird day, and we’ve been through weird days before,” Paul said. “I still don’t understand what all is going on, but I’m glad you guys are doing alright. I knew Bill was there, but not you two, not for certain anyway.”

“Oh it was all my fault,” Charlotte sighed.

“I agreed to go,” Ted disagreed in his slurred voice.

“But I was the reason we went in the end. I was the one who really wanted it that badly. You wanted it, but I was so… Did you feel that pull to the toy, Paul? The agent said it pulled on the most unhappy people,” Charlotte said.

“No, I thought it was weird and didn’t really see what the fuss was about, neither did Emma. I’m sure it would have been different if I was close to a doll, like it was with the meteor,” Paul explained.

“I don’t mean to be unhappy, I’m just… everything is changing so much all the time, you know?” Charlotte said. “Suddenly we’re having a baby and Ted’s got a kid… I love her to bits, I _do_ , but it’s just all so sudden. On top of all that, I’m still getting used to the fact that I’m never gonna walk again and my asshole husband is dead! I don’t mean to be unhappy, I have so much to be happy about, really I do, but I just need a break.”

“Uh…” Paul did not know how to respond to this. Ted seemed to have zoned out because he was staring at the ceiling, and honestly Paul wished he was in the same boat at the moment. He was not great with emotional talk, he barely ever understood his own feelings, Emma had to help him with that sometimes. ”I’m sorry you feel that way? Uh… do you want me to grab you a coffee or something? I… Okay. Okay. You’re my friend and you need advice and I need to give it to you. Okay. I’m not really good at words you know that, you know I suck at this kind of thing but uh… 

“Charlotte. You’re a great person. We all love you, and you’ve had a really really rough time, like, we’ve all had a rough time but you have had a _rough_ time and you’re going through a lot and it’s… normal, to feel bad and scared and stuff. That thing took advantage of the fact that you’re vulnerable right now because of everything and used it against you. That isn’t anything to feel bad about, you had no more control over it than you did falling for the spell of the Hive.”

“Maybe I’m just easy to manipulate,” Charlotte mumbled.

“Maybe! You know, maybe! But it still isn’t your fault even if you are. It’s the stupid beings trying to control people that you can blame. It isn’t the victim’s fault,” Paul assured.

She smiled a bit over at him and held out a hand for him to hold. “Thank you, Paul. I’m lucky to have you as my friend.”

Paul took her hand and looked at the two men in the beds. “I’m lucky for all three of you, always have been.”

\---

Emma didn’t really know what she was doing, but she was doing it for her brother in law and that was all that mattered. Ethan had always been an outside kind of part of the family to her because he was dating Lex and not actually adopted or anything, but he was important to Tom and the kids so he was important to her. She had the same feelings about Becky, they were both Dating Family they weren’t technically family yet. It was weird how close she’d gotten to Tom over the last year or so, they were closer than she’d ever been with Jane but that wasn’t hard. They both needed that connection, and they found it. Sometimes she just thought of him as her brother rather than her brother in law, not that she’d ever admit it.

“Becky! Where’s Ethan, I told Tom I’d check on him,” Emma said as Becky rushed past her.

“Oh! Emma, hi!” Becky said, stopping for paperwork at the nurse’s station. “He’s in the ICU to recover from the surgery.”

“What surgery?” Emma asked.

Becky winced and sat her papers down. “He got beat real bad by some adult men, it was awful. One of his lungs deflated due to broken ribs, they had to go in and fix it with surgery. I’m not sure he’ll ever run a marathon again, but he’ll live as long as things stay the way they’re heading.”

“Shit, that sucks,” Emma said breathlessly. “Okay, can I visit him? I know Tom won’t feel okay until one of us gets our eyes on him and he’ll trust you, of course, but you’re ‘part of the system’ and all that so it might make him feel better if I can see him too.”

“I’m not sure. ICU is more strict with visiting so that it’s quiet for the patients and with everything going on they might not want anyone in there right now, but you can go ask,” Becky said.

“Where is the ICU?” Emma asked.

“Go up two floors,” Becky said with a kind smile. “Don’t worry, there’s signs in the elevator.

Emma nodded. “Cool cool, also you killed Linda Monroe?”

Becky suddenly paled, eyes wide. “I- well- in the moment- It was-”

“No no no no no you did a good thing nobody is gonna care and PEIP will cover for you, I wanted to say congrats on doing what we all wished we had the guts to do,” Emma said with a slight smile.

“Oh that’s rude,” Becky said with a scolding face, gently hitting her with one of the files.

“It’s true! I hated that woman. Good job on doing it, Tom said she was the cult leader or something?” Emma said.

“Yep, yeah, she was in charge, they were calling her a prophet or something, I knew it wouldn’t end unless she was dead, and I think I was right. Xander said I was right anyway,” Becky said.

“I didn’t know you had it in you honestly, and I’m not sure I do,” Emma said. “For my family, absolutely, for anyone else…”

“Sometimes you need to kill to defend yourself or those you love. Sometimes that means killing a cult leader who apparently was the prophet for an evil god your boyfriend’s daughter apparently lit on fire in a psychic dimension,” Becky said, eyes wide and looking into the distance due to the strangeness of the statement.

Emma had to laugh at the look and the weirdness that was their lives. “So you two made it official?”

“Yeah, while under Wiggly’s spell we had a talk and it snapped me out and I snapped him out and now we’re kind of official?” Becky said with some excitement before looking around again. “We can have this talk when I get off, which should be soon, I’m not even technically working right now, I just jumped in to help. Once I’m told to be done we can talk. I’d love to…” she paused to try and find the right word, “have actual adult talk with another woman? I love Tom, but there is a difference. Lex looks to me for advice, I need someone- I need a friend.”

“I was thinking about getting you and Charlotte together some time to have girl talk or whatever, if the ‘Dad Club Plus Paul’ thing ends up being a thing. I think all three of us ladies in our thirties could use something like that. It’s not like any of us have sisters to turn to,” Emma said with a shrug.

There was a heavy silence that hung in the air after those words, but Emma had a point. “I think that sounds lovely, Emma, thank you.”

“If you’re with Tom, you’re part of the family, right?” Emma said.

“I guess this does make that fact official, doesn’t it?” Becky replied with a small smile in return.

Becky was soon rushing off to help someone and Emma was finding her way to the Intensive Care Unit. She was allowed a brief visit, and much to her relief the teen was in fact breathing. It would take time, hopefully not as long as the Apotheosis, but it would take time for everyone to heal, to be some shade of okay again, and that was okay. They’d been through a lot in the last two months or so, they were allowed a recovery period. Everyone would be fine, everything would be fine, it would just take some time, and without an obvious emergency on the radar, they had that time to heal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am currently unsure how far ahead the next chapter will be but it will be a few days or weeks or so for recovery purposes. We will see people go home, we will say goodbye to Wilbur, we will look forward to the future. There is a threat looming, but they have time to relax for now.


	34. Settles All The Dust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wilbur is given the opportunity few are allowed: to say a true goodbye to those he loves and those he wishes to thank.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I am alive! Yes! It's been really hard to write this, but here it is. There is one more story after this, which will be titled Web Tied Warriors, and I have been working on the plot of it since... ehhh... halfway through this story? I can't be certain when I will start writing it, I want to have a clearer idea what I want to do before I start, but for the first time in months I have inspiration again and it's Paulkins, so there's that. There are a lot of scenes I know will happen, but it's only specific characters, and Web Tied has a lot of threads to weave through to a satisfactory conclusion. I want this to be good, I want to do it right. It will happen eventually, I promise! Just need to work on it a bit.
> 
> This fic has been very difficult to end because I have had a hard time deciding a way to do it justice, and while this chapter does not focus on the main characters, it carries the theme and brings us hope and light for the future. There are still threats ahead, but this chapter of their story is over, and with that we must say goodbye.
> 
> In the meantime I have been working on a Starship fic which I have been updating fairly regularly and am fairly pleased with. I haven't had a lot of readers and it's a bit discouraging when it comes to writing. With the slump I've been in, it's been hard to write and post, but you all help me through!
> 
> This chapter is sad. I am not going to lie to you, it is sad. A lot of it is stuff I wished I could tell my father, and stuff I wished he could tell me. He died back in August, and one of the major things we were talking about the last time I was home was this fic. This is for him, these fics all draw from my life experiences. It does end hopeful though, because death is not the end for those that love the one that has passed. I miss my dad often, my real dad not the one who was there before he died because Dementia rotted his brain. This is for him, I love you, Dad.
> 
> Warnings! Sad! Talk of death! Dementia mention! The narrator talks to the reader at the end! Woo!

The Black and White was cold. The Black and White was hot. The Black and White was angry and empty and comfort and fear. It was everything and it was nothing and it twisted those who found themselves within it into a form they would not recognize in life. If they were lucky, a kind being would give them a peaceful eternity, but not all were lucky in the constant and everlasting war between the Good and the Bad. Some mortal souls were taken and turned into something dark, something angry, something that hungered for life and was willing to kill anything that came in the way of that goal. Those souls, feral and vapid, simply need a way free, a guiding light to lead them back into the material plane.

But the being that assisted them was gone, at least for now, and everything once again settled into its natural chaotic harmony there. There would always be angry souls desperate for freedom from the suffering they found themselves in, but for now there was no suffering, no creature playing with them and disturbing their peaceful afterlives. Those that suffered under Wiggly found themselves in the arms of a much kinder being, Webby, now that he could no longer hold them. These spirits that haunted Hatchetfield at Wiggly’s command, and those that died due to his influence, now found themselves in a peaceful eternity where they could exist and fade forever more. The fight was over now, they could finally rest.

\---

Wilbur was not yet ready to rest. Not quite. The offer was tempting, truly tempting, but he knew he could return to it once he was ready, and he was not yet ready. Wilber never got to say goodbye, not really. He’d said an uncertain goodbye before going through the portal, but it wasn’t the same. There was a difference between a goodbye that might last but was just as possible that it would not, and a goodbye to put your relationship with them to rest, comfort both parties in the knowledge that it was okay to move on. He’d told his parents goodbye and headed to work that day, knowing he may not return but not giving them the end they needed. He’d hugged his son and told him he would be right back, and he never returned.

No, Wilbur could not rest until his emotional affairs were settled. Like a spirit in ghost stories, he couldn’t move on without one final task, and comforting those he loved was that single deed he needed to do.

He knelt down to eye level with his father, Owen, sleeping in his chair. Wilber hated to wake him but this needed to be done. He only had so long to do it before he grew too weak without Wiggly’s power and was trapped there. “Hey, Daddy-O? Wake up for a minute here, I wanna talk,” Wilbur said quietly, shaking his father’s knee gently.

Owen slowly woke and blinked up at Wilbur with confusion. “Wiley? Is it you?” he asked, his voice soft.

“It’s Wilbur, Dad, how many times do I gotta tell ya that,” Wilbur replied with a sad smile, echoing words they used to say all the time. It seemed so long ago now, like another world, but he knew after his last visit that in Owen’s mind it was nearly like he’d never left.

His father smiled a bit and tried to put his hand on Wilbur’s head to mess up his hair, but found that he was not as solid as he’d expected. Wilbur had noticed that too, that he was beginning to fade. He had to hurry. “What’s wrong?” Owen asked, looking at his own hand with confusion.

“Nothin’, Daddy-O, nothin’s wrong. I just needed to tell you that I love you, alright, and that I always have. And, when your time comes, I’m gonna be waiting right at the doorway to meet you there, okay? I’m gonna meet ya there and you’re gonna be safe, and you’ll be with me, and it’ll all be okay. Now, I know you probably won’t remember this, but… I hope some part of you does, so you don’t have to miss me too much, okay? If you need me, if you miss me, I’m there, I’m gonna be watching over you and Daddy-C from over there, and it’s all gonna be alright,” Wilbur said, unable to stop the tears from forming in his eyes though they did not yet fall. He was trying so carefully not to upset him, he knew with dementia that it could be easy to upset him, but he didn’t want that.

Owen got a look of clarity in his eyes, like for the first time in a while he was truly present. He gave his son a sad smile and leaned forward, carefully kissing Wilbur’s head the best he could. “You were the best of sons. I am so proud to be your father. You’d better keep your promise now, or you’ll be as bad as your father,” he said softly. He didn’t sound sad, it wasn’t sadness. It was… relief. It was gratefulness. It was love. Owen was not sad, he knew where his son was now, he had no reason to be sad.

Wilbur couldn’t help the slight sob that came upon him and caused him to lay his head on his father’s lap for the last time, thinking about how he had sat there as a child when he was in need of comfort. All the nights when nightmares kept him awake, how they’d sat with milk watching something stupid on the television until his tears dried and he could return to sleep. It was a strange grief he felt, grief for himself, for the life he’d lost, for the fact he would not reunite with his fathers until they passed on as well. Owen placed his hand on Wilbur’s head as best he could in acceptance until Wilbur stood up.

“Thank you. Thank you for agreeing with Dad to take me in all those years ago. Thank you for being my father, for doing everything you could for me. I’m gonna be waiting for you, you hear? Nothin’s gonna stop me from helping you move on when it’s time,” Wilbur assured. “I love you, Dad.”

“I love you too, Wilbur,” Owen said, leaning back in his chair with a slight smile on his face. “Now go scare the hell out of Curt.”

“Yes, Sir,” Wilbur said with a wet laugh as he wiped at his eyes. He took a deep breath before walking out of the closed door and into the living room where his other father was sitting on the couch watching television. 

Upon seeing him, Curt near jumped out of his skin, shooting off the couch to find one of the hidden weapons. “You think you can come back here with my son’s skin and get away with it?!” he said, pulling the gun on him.

“It’s me this time, Daddy-C. John’s protégé got rid of Wiggly, I’m free,” Wilbur explained with a sad smile and a soft voice.

Curt watched him carefully before slowly lowering the weapon. “Xander called and told me they got the son of a bitch. Your son’s in recovery at their hospital.”

“I know, he’s my last stop. I-... It’s time for me to go, for good this time. I’m goin’ back to the Black and White to stay, but before I do I just had to say goodbye to my family,” Wilbur explained.

His father sighed and put the safety back on the gun before sitting it down. “Did you talk to Owen?”

“I did. I told him I was gonna watch over you two and be there when you move on so I can make sure you get to the better afterlife the Black and White has to offer. Webby scooped up the souls of those in Wiggly’s possession, so I’m gonna be okay, and I’m gonna make sure you two are as well,” Wilbur explained.

“Did he get upset?” Curt asked, casting a concerned glance at the door.

Wilbur shook his head and put his hands in his pockets. “Nah, he seemed relieved. I was the one crying like a baby. He told me to come out here and scare the shit out of you,” he said, smiling a bit.

Curt relaxed some at that and leaned against the bookcase along the wall where he kept the gun. “So this is it. You’re saying goodbye to me then? It’s my turn?”

“You and Daddy-O were my first stop,” Wilber said. “I wanted to get to you before I faded too bad, and I wanted to do John last cause it won’t feel right if I don’t.”

“Alright… You know I’ve never been too great at… this kinda thing… feelings talks…” Curt said slowly, crossing his arms.

Wilbur laughed a bit and shook his head. “You’ve always been shit at it, there’s a reason I went to him about that kinda thing,” he joked, pointing his thumb towards the door his other father was behind.

“I don’t even know what to say… I’m sorry you went through so many years of hell. If I’d been able to do anything about it, if I’d know…”

“There is absolutely nothing you could have done to prevent this,” Wilbur assured, walking forward. “My death is not on your hands, not one bit. I don’t want you to feel an ounce of guilt. I know how much you love your guilt, but none of that for me, alright? You mighta started PEIP, but they were always gonna want a person with the gift to go in, and want to send John ‘cause he was younger, and I was always gonna go in instead. There is nothing you could have done.”

“You didn’t deserve this. Not one bit. If I’d known adopting you would lead to-”

“Are you saying you regret adopting me?” Wilbur cut in jokingly.

“No! No no no, never. You are my _son_ , Wilbur, you are my son. As your dad I wish I could have stopped you from hurting, prevented you from suffering for so long, for dying so young. But I just- There was just-... I will never regret adopting you, I just wish I could have kept you safe,” Curt said, grief heavy in his voice.

Wilbur made up the distance between them and gave his dad a sad smile. “You did everything in your power to keep me safe. You adopted me to keep me safe. You made the rules of PEIP to keep me and every kid like me safe. The world is a dangerous place, especially for people who try to help. You did everything you could for me but you could never protect me from everything. I don’t blame you at all for this, not one bit, not either of you. You both did as right by me as you could, and I am proud to call you my fathers. My death is not on your hands or Daddy-O’s. My time with Wiggly is no one’s fault but my own for agreeing to go, but I was always gonna insist to go because John was the next in line to go. You would have done it for me.”

“I would have,” Curt agreed with a slight nod and a downward glance. “Thank you. I think some part of me is always going to blame myself for this, but hearing from you… I think I can live with it.”

“And you’ve gotta. You gotta live to be a hundred and two, you hear me? I may be watching over you two but if I see you there any time before that I’m sending you right back the way you came,” Wilbur said. “You quit the extra drinking, I know you’ve been slipping again, I see it in this room. You take care of Daddy-O and then you watch over John for me cause I can’t be there for him like a Dad should be. I can’t hug him again. I need you to do that for me.” Dang it he was tearing up again.

“I promise,” Curt said honestly, trying to hold his son’s hand and finding it difficult. Not wanting to draw attention to that though, he looked his son in the eye instead. “I promise with everything I’ve got that I will keep being there for John until I can’t be anymore. I promise I’ll be there when he needs me. You know that boy never wants to reach out to anyone, but for you I’ll keep making sure he knows he’s got family. And, I’ll stop drinking, I’ll try. I’ve struggled with it longer than you’ve been- longer than you’ve existed in any shape or form, but if that’s your last request of me I’ll do it.”

“You’re damn lucky your liver hasn’t given out,” Wilbur snarked. “No use tempting fate. You don’t wanna get sick and go before Daddy-O.”

“No, no, you’re right,” Curt said before feeding into the joking tone. “My dead son telling me to get my shit together, not a thing I expected to experience in my life but not an event I mind.”

“I love you, Dad. I never said that enough before and I need you to know it’s true. I love you, I love you both so much. I need to thank you for taking me in, I need to thank you for doing everything you did for me. I need to tell you how much it meant to me that you were always there when I needed you. I need to thank you for that time you caught me after I snuck out ‘cause we both snuck out to the same concert in town and you bought me my first beer and drove me home after and never told Daddy-O about it ‘cause you knew he’d kill me. I need to thank you for every other little moment you spent with me, for every concert and festival and movie you took me to see. I need to thank you for saving my life, and teaching me how to live, and how to be a good father to my own boy. I just need to thank you for everything, just everything,” Wilbur said, wiping at his tears as they formed.

“Spending time with you was some of the best times of my life, I promise you that. My own father was never there, so being there for you was the greatest blessing the universe could have given me. I wanted to help you experience everything I could, I wanted to give you happy memories,” Curt said tearfully.

“They weren’t happy memories because of the things we did, but because we did ‘em together. I will hold onto those memories until I fade into nothing because it was some of the best times in my life, not because of the experiences, but because I experienced them with you. I love you more than words can ever express. I’m never gonna stop regretting that we will never have one of those times again, but I will be eternally thankful that we had the ones we got to have. Every road trip, every yard sale, every park we walked through, I’m always gonna hold those dear ‘cause that was time I spent with you,” Wilbur said. He couldn’t stop the tears, but he needed his father to know how much he meant to him. This was the only time in his life he would ever be able to hear it.

“Thank you,” Curt said, wiping away his own tears. “Thank you for this, thank you for being an amazing son. I loved spending time with you, and I have never stopped missing you. I can’t wait to see you again, but I will. I will live the best I can until then, and I’ll do what I can to tell you good stories once we’re back together again.”

“That sounds perfect, Dad,” Wilbur said with a sad smile. “That sounds just about perfect.”

“You have to go now don’t you?” Curt asked.

“I only have a short amount of time to be here,” Wilbur agreed softly, “but I needed to spend this time with you.”

“Our final time,” Curt said with a sad smile of his own.

“Our final time. Goodbye, Dad, I love you,” Wilbur said, trying his best to keep his voice from breaking too much as he did.

“Goodbye, Son. I’ll see you again, it won’t seem like any time at all,” Curt assured, leaning up and giving his son a forehead kiss before Wilbur faded away, leaving him alone.

\---

Wilbur reappeared in a hospital room, but not his son’s. There was a stop to make between his parents and his son, and that was a visit to two girls he owed an apology. By then, they were both healing fairly well, though the older would still require a while to regain what she’d lost in the Black and White. Still, they were alright and doing better by the day. Wilbur couldn’t be sure how much time had passed because time worked differently in the Black and White, but certainly days had gone by, maybe even weeks given how well they were doing. The younger, Hannah, was no longer in a bed and her place had been taken by their Guardian who was sound asleep, still in recovery from everything that happened. He was doing well though, it seemed, but Wilbur didn’t know much about that situation and did not have time to ask.

“You!” Lex cried when she spotted him.

“What the fuck?” the kinda orangey brown haired guy asked. A Warrior, he’d been at the mall, he’d helped stop everything. Wilbur could not recall his name.

“Free,” Hannah said simply, giving him a slight smile.

Wilbur nodded in agreement and put his hands in his pockets. He wished he had an apple, but alas he did not have the strength to summon one anymore. “When you killed Wiggly, you freed me and every other soul he’s collected. Webby took all of us, we’re gonna have peaceful afterlives from now on, all because of you two. I needed to thank you both before I stayed in the Black and White forever.”

“Have you been crying?” Lex asked.

Wilbur scoffed a bit and rubbed his eyes again. “I just said goodbye to my parents. Imagine you’ve been dead fourteen years and then going back to your dad here and told him a good and proper goodbye. You’d be crying too.”

Lex shrugged in agreement. She wasn’t wearing bandages now, but she was wearing a hat on her head to cover her hair which had suffered from the dematerialization. “I mean my mom’s soul is probably one of the ones Webby got in the deal and I’d rather never speak to her again, so…”

“My dad’s adopted me, I have no fuckin’ clue where my biological ones are in the Black and White. Maybe I’ll go looking for them. More important, I wanted to apologize for the shit I pulled under Wiggly’s control. It wasn’t good and I’m glad you both made it out in one piece. Also thank you for stopping him and freeing us all. We can have a peaceful afterlife now because of you,” Wilbur said.

“My wife…” Tom said. “She was one of the spirits that came back.”

“Then she, like all them, is being fixed up by Webby. She’s repairing the pieces he broke in everybody to make them back to who they were. She did me first so I could do this, hence the belated goodbye we’re doin’ now,” Wilbur explained. “She’ll be there when you get there, but she’ll want you to live the best life you can before you go. That’s all any of us want.”

Tom nodded and took a deep breath. “Good. I’m moving on, I just… It’s good to hear she’s getting better. I wanted that for her. I can move on and so can she.”

“Exactly. It’s just about time for me to do the same,” Wilbur said, looking at the clock in the room.

“One more thing before you go… Is he really gone?” Lex asked.

“Beings like him never fully go away. He’ll be ‘dead’ for a time, hundreds or thousands of years as he puts himself back together, but you will never have to worry about him again, I promise you that. He won’t be back within your lifetime,” Wilbur assured. “You’ve got other problems to deal with though, Wiggly isn’t the only threat. I can feel an old one looming, you’d all best be prepared for that time to come.” With that warning, Wilbur nodded his head respectfully to each of them and faded away in order to reappear in his desired location.

\---

Wilbur found himself in a private room where John was in a hospital bed. His husband was beside him in a chair with a desk, working away on his laptop and not noticing Xander originally. John did notice him though, and he sat up a bit more in bed, not surprised in the least. He was looking better, though his poor hair had also suffered from its time in the Black and White and it would likely need to be cut some to recover, like Lex’s had been.

“You’re late,” John stated softly.

Xander looked up at John with confusion, then in the direction that John was looking in. “Oh. Wilbur. John said you would be coming,” he said, looking more surprised that John had.

“It’s been a long time since you and I have been able to talk, Mr. Lee. You were predisposed before, so the last time we actually talked was right around when I went in the portal,” Wilbur said.

“It was right before you went in, I secured your life support systems and you told me to take care of your son if you didn’t come back,” Xander noted.

“And I need to thank you for doing that job admirably all these years. You even got married! I’m always gonna hate that I wasn’t there for it, but I’m glad you two got to do it. I didn’t used to think it was ever gonna happen, and now it’s legal and everything. Thank you for being there for him and supporting him. I can’t, and that breaks my heart, but I know he’s in good hands ‘cause of you, and I’m eternally thankful,” Wilbur said.

Xander relaxed and smiled a bit. “It’s my pleasure. If I didn’t want to take care of him all these years I wouldn’t have picked him up from the frat party before we were officially dating,” he joked.

“We swore we would never speak of that to my father,” John quickly hissed.

Xander only laughed and smiled a bit more at Wilbur. “I don’t think he minds.”

“I don’t,” Wilbur agreed with a small laugh of his own. “It’s nice to hear you pulled shit like that, it’s nice to know you’ve had experiences.”

“It was a bad experience,” John muttered.

“It was an experience that bagged you a husband. Be grateful for every experience you go through in some way. Some things suck, John, but things always _always_ get better eventually, until you die. You got a husband from getting wasted at a party. You got the chance to become the man you were destined to be because you lost me. It is a shame that I died so young, when you were so young. I missed your wedding, I missed every promotion, I missed so, so much. But you are the man you are today because you lost me. It hurt, and I’m sorry, and I’m sorry about everything I’ve done because of Wiggly, but there’s always a silver lining. The last two months have been shitty for you, but it brought me back to you, and it gave me peace,” Wilbur said, sitting on the side of his bed.

“We did it then? You really can have your peaceful afterlife,” John asked, looking so much like the little boy he rescued so long ago. He looked sad and hopeful and young and it reminded Wilbur that even though John was all grown up he would always be his son.

“You did it. Those girls did it, but you had a hand in it,” Wilbur assured. “And I’m gonna be there to make sure my fathers’ get to Webby when they die, and I’ll be there waiting for both of you too. This isn’t the end. I may be fading like a normal ghost now, but I’ve still got a bit of extra juice, I’m not gonna disappear into the Black and White any time soon. I’m gonna be there when you cross over, and you’re gonna get to tell me all the things I missed in your incredibly long and interesting life.”

John nodded. Much of what the two of them needed to say had been said before, when Wilbur was possessing Xander and they weren’t sure they were going to be able to defeat Wiggly. There were few things in life more comforting than knowing your father was resting safely and comfortably in the afterlife and would be there for you when it was your time though, and John appreciated the moment. “I will do my best to live as long as possible. I’m going to make you proud.”

“Oh, Johnny, I’ve always been proud. I am so, so proud of you. You have done so well in your life, so much more than I ever got to do, and I am so grateful for that. I only ever wanted the best for you and you got it for yourself, that makes me so, so proud,” Wilbur assured. “Some part of me has missed you every single day I’ve been away. A father’s love can’t be taken away so easily. I am gonna keep on missing you for the decades and decades you have left to live, but this time I’m gonna be grateful for that, because our separation means you’re safe and alive.”

“It is much easier to accept your death now that I know you are alright over there. I can fully let you go,” John agreed. “I will never stop missing you either. You are my father. I am who I am because of the foundations you helped me build. But, missing you is okay, we must just keep moving forward. I have a life to live, and stories to collect to share with you when we reunite. I will miss you until we are together once more, but I promise I will live my life to the fullest while I have it. Missing you does not have to take away from that.”

“All I want is for you to live your life to the fullest, and remember me. Do that and I could never be more proud,” Wilbur assured. This wasn’t entirely sad. It wasn’t like his fathers. Yes, he’d teared up a bit again, but he wasn’t entirely sad. He was so happy for his son, so happy they could have this goodbye. The more tearful talk had already happened. “You know, we didn’t think we would get this opportunity, this is like… Ordering a cupcake and when you get there, they put on an extra bit of chocolate just for you. It’s like surprise sprinkles on a donut. A sweet little extra on an already good thing. You did right by me, John, so did your protégé. Thank you.”

John gave him his usual nod and a small smile. “I am glad we could say a more happy goodbye. It was so nice to hear from you that your afterlife will be positive from now on. I look forward to seeing you again, one day a very long time from now.”

“Goodbye, Johnny. I love you so much,” Wilbur said, placing his fading hand on his son’s.

“Goodbye, Dad, I love you just the same,” John said, placing his other hand on his father’s as the man faded from the Earth one final time.

\---

Life is short. Life is fleeting. Sometimes it feels like everything in the world is kicking you at the same time without giving you the time and space to breathe. Eventually the dust always settles. Eventually, even when recovery is long, you begin to heal. Eventually the spring comes and the flowers begin to poke through the frozen earth. Life is, in my experience, a roller coaster ride that constantly goes up and down with few times of rest in between. But! The roller coaster always goes back up again, always.

Even when everything in the world is against you, even when you lose people you love or find yourself struggling to make ends meet. It takes perseverance, it takes kindness towards yourself and the sheer determination to prove to the world which has tried so hard to break you that it can never succeed. You are strong enough, even at your most broken, you can be strong enough. When your brain screams and screams that you can’t, take a deep breath, and work to find another way through. There is always another way, often more than one though you can rarely see the options at the time.

Sometimes it takes small kindnesses from others to push through. If you can, choose to be that kindness. You never know when the person you are speaking to needs it. Small things can turn the world around. The universe itself has repeatedly attempted to destroy Hatchetfield, and yet Hatchetfield remains. The players in this tale suffer, and recover, because when the world tries over and over to destroy you the biggest form of resistance you and take is to survive in spite of its best efforts. Certainly some of the heroes are special, but as a whole they are normal people doing what they can. Normal people can do amazing things and survive through terrible events, and so, Dear Reader, can you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am doing alright. We are living through difficult times, and it is more difficult for some than others, but I swear to you things can get better. Even the worst things have a positive even if they can't be seen until years out, even if the positive is simply making you who you are going to become. My father is gone, but he is no longer suffering, and we are no longer worrying. He can be himself again after losing himself to his health, he can be himself wherever souls go. I like to think I will see him again, I hope I can see him again. He is going to miss so much of my life, he is going to miss my graduation and my wedding and when I get children, but I like to think some part of him is watching and is going to be there when it's my turn to go. 
> 
> We will get through this. It is okay to miss what you've lost, to miss normalcy or those that have gone, but carry them with you and look towards tomorrow. It can be hard, but we can just take one day at a time. I needed to write this. This was planned even before my father passed, I intended to write this but shorter, then things happened. I needed to write this for me, for processing, and to hopefully help someone else going through hardship. You aren't alone.
> 
> The next story is going to be a return to normal Web Tied stuff: family times, trying to work through things, some romance, something trying to destroy the world (that was mentioned in Web Tied Asides!). This chapter just needed written. I hope you all are well and I am sending you good vibes.


End file.
